


Not Your Housekeeper

by lil_cbt



Category: Underfell - Fandom, Underswap - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Am I Even Doing This Right, And angst, F/M, Literally my first UT fic and my first fic like this please have mercy, Probably more tags as this goes on, Slow Burn, Sorry if that bothers anyone, and curse words, asshole boyfriend that you dunk on later, just rolling with the punches at this point, maybe? I'm not sure, not sure how long this will be, reader identifies as female, there shall be fluff, why the hell is my gaster sassy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-13 00:08:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 34,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7954387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lil_cbt/pseuds/lil_cbt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You storm out of the apartment one night in the middle of a storm after witnessing a scene that you'd rather not have witnessed. After crying your eyes out and getting lost, your night gets so much better when you are hit by a car.</p><p>Good thing your accidental assailants had the initiative to take you back to their place and to get you patched up.</p><p>And offer you a job and place to live?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Water from the Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fed to the rules

You hadn’t even noticed the rain when you had stormed outside your apartment with nothing on you but the clothes on your back. Well, it wasn’t really your apartment anymore; you had left it behind along with…him. The torrential downpour had already soaked through your clothes and had left you a sopping wet mess in just a matter of moments as you stormed off in a random direction, not caring where you were going, as long as you were getting away. From there, from him, from that place that held so many memories, good and bad.

You wrapped your arms around yourself, tears springing from your eyes and making your vision blurry as your teeth grinded together in pure anger, almost to the point of giving you a headache.

How dare he?!

After all you two had been through together. Three years and he just throws it all away in one night!

You shook your head, wet hair flinging water droplets and sticking to your face as your stomping feet splashed puddles, more water seeping into your clothes. You tried to not think about it. About what you saw. The images…the noises… But it was the only thing running through your mind as you continued forward in no direction whatsoever.

_You heaved a quiet, tired sigh as you closed the door behind you gently, locking it before moving to untie your work shoes, letting them drop besides your boyfriend’s in a jumbled heap. He would most likely be asleep by now, knowing you had to work late today, not bothering to turn on any lights, you could see easily enough with assistance from the soft lights that the streetlights provided as they leaked in through the windows._

_You smiled to yourself as you looked at the combined pair of shoes, one worn down – yours, from tons of use – the other looking brand new. You had bought those new shoes for him on your third anniversary, which had passed not too long ago. It had been nice and quiet – spent at the small apartment you two shared. Exchanging gifts and little kisses until you both fell asleep in each other’s arms. You had gotten him the shoes, and he had gotten you the necklace you currently wore around your neck. A silver chain with your birthstone._

_You let out a happy sigh as you made your way down the hallway. It had been perfect. There really was no one else you’d rather spend the rest of your life with, and you were sure of it now after this most recent anniversary._

_Just as you were about to head into the bathroom to wash up before heading to bed, you paused as you heard a noise coming from further down the hall. It didn’t…sound at all like your boyfriend. It was more…high pitched. Odd… Did he have his friends over? Surely he would’ve told you…_

_You crept towards the bedroom that you and your boyfriend shared, hidden away in the darkness, the door cracked open just a bit, hearing that high pitched noise again. Strange, it sounded like a…? Your eyes widened when you saw that your boyfriend was not alone in your bed. The one that you two shared. Your whole mind shut down as you watched the scene play out in front of you for a few moments before you had had enough, slamming the door open with tears in your eyes._

_Well, at least the woman lying in bed beside your good-for-nothing boyfriend seemed resentful as the slamming door made her quickly stop whatever she was doing. The two of you argued, a shouting match that didn’t seem to have any victor until finally you quieted down and asked in a quiet voice, eyes downcast and body trembling._

_“Didn’t these last three years mean anything to you…?”_

_“I’ve been seeing other people for two of them,” he had replied curtly, not seeming to care as you broke down in front of him, watching as your head snapped back up at his words._

_You were silent for some time, processing this information until you finally got the strength in you to shout, “Fucking asshole! You’re a waste of air and space! I don’t know what I ever saw in you!” and various other curses and shouts that were accompanied with sobs as you stormed out the door, not even taking any of your belongings besides your shoes that were hastily put on your feet._

_You simply had to leave…you needed to leave._

That’s where you are now, walking down a curving, winding gravel road, mind hazy and body shivering because of the cold and your emotions. You aren’t exactly sure where you are anymore or how far away from town you had walked. 

How you are even going to get home? Wait, did you even have a home anymore? You lived with him, leaving behind your family and friends from the previous town you lived in. They had warned you about him, told you he was no good, but you simply brushed them off, saying that you were an adult and you could take care of yourself.

And just look at you now. You just walked out after calling him all those names. After all the shouting and screaming you did. There was no way he would take you back, even just to house you for the night. Hell, you didn’t even want to go back there. But standing here, in sopping wet clothes and freezing down to your bones wasn’t any way to mull over what to do next. 

You paused in the middle of the gravel road, the only sound reaching your ears was the thick water droplets hitting the ground and your teeth chattering as you hugged yourself tighter in an attempt to get warm.

You were freezing.

Where would you go? All of your friends in this town were also his friends. They would undoubtedly take his side. You had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. You closed your eyes as fresh, hot new tears began to roll down your cheeks and mix with the rain, turning your head up towards the sky and letting the rain wash away your emotions.

You had begun to take a step back to where you had come from – hoping you would find your way back to town before hypothermia set in, maybe you had enough money to stay in a hotel room tonight? – when a new sound reached your ears that made you turn around quickly, eyes widening. 

Though you weren’t sure what was louder in your ears; the screeching of the tires, the sound of your body being hit by the car, the sound of your body hitting the ground when you did make landfall, or the rain that continued to fall on you and the car that just hit you. You watched as two…pale figures stepped out of the red convertible, your eyesight even fuzzier than before as you tried to move, finding you had no energy to do so.

How hard did you the ground? Did you hit your head? Was anything broken? All you could feel was numbness, but you were chalking that up to the freezing cold of the rain.

They ran over to you, kneeling over you, the fuzziness in your eyes clearing for a split second. Skeletons? Monsters? Odd. One had cracks going down their face. Did it hurt? You didn’t think monsters lived near your town. Your mind couldn’t process this information at this time. They attempted to talk to you, asking you questions you couldn’t quite piece together. Their voices were muffled to your ears, joining into one confusing voice that made your head hurt worse than it already did. One was much taller than the other, and you couldn’t help but notice that they had the strangest eyes – were they glowing? – as you began to fade out of consciousness.

Red, like fire.

And yellow, like the sun.

\--

“shit shit shit shit shit,” the shorter skeleton breathed out curses as he had realized you had passed out. “is she still breathing? christ i didn’t even see her! who the hell walks around in the middle of the night in a fucking downpour?!” the shorter skeleton growled, rows of sharp teeth baring, placing all the blame on you.

“would you just shut up a second?” the snap from the taller skeleton made the other quiet down with a grumble, stuffing his hands in the pockets of a floofy black jacket that protected him from the rain. Boney fingers pressed against the pulse point in your neck, easily finding your pulse, however weak. You were also freezing cold. “she’s alive, but barely. we need to get her back to the house.”

“a human…at the house?” the other seemed to falter the slightest bit, but then his seemingly permanent grin came back to his face, albeit more forced, his single gold tooth sparkling in the headlights of the convertible as the taller of the two scooped you up quite easily in his arms. “y-you sure that’s a good idea, bud?” he seemed to grind out the last word. “some of us don’t take too kindly to humans.”

“do you want to risk bringing a human that’s near death to a human hospital?” the look the shorter skeleton gave him made the taller smirk in victory. “didn’t think so. it was your fault anyway. learn to keep your eyes on the road and not on your phone.” The words made the shorter skeleton gawk before grumbling angrily and escaping into the wet fur lining of his jacket. “the house is the best bet. at least the doc can have a look at her…it’s better than nothing.” he looked down at your unconscious form.

“s’pose…” the smaller skeleton shuffled back over to the car, climbing into the passenger seat as the taller laid you down in the back seat, taking off the single piece of clothing he seemed to have covering his torso and laying it over you – a leather jacket. It wasn’t much, and it was a bit wet, but it was better than nothing.

He slipped into the driver’s side, giving you a look in the rear view mirror before putting the car into drive and starting on the road again, mindful of the cargo they had in the backseat now.

“what’re we gonna tell everyone else?”

Yellow pinpricks of light drifted over to his companion before shrugging nonchalantly. “we could tell the truth.”

Red beads of sweat started to form on the shorter’s forehead. “a-and that would be?”

The taller skeleton was already pulling out his phone and dialed a single number, eyes never leaving the road, putting the phone to his ear. Seemed this phone number was on speed dial.

"[HELLO?]"

“doc, it’s me.”

"[I QUITE FIGURED, BUT WHAT DO YOU REQUIRE?]"

“me and red are bringing home…” he paused and looked in the backseat to your unconscious form. “a present for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND I HIT THE GROUND RUNNING
> 
> Slightly inspired by [Six Skeletons, One Maid.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7124200/chapters/16181881) Bless your little heart, [raccoonsinqueen.](http://archiveofourown.org/users/RaccoonSinQueen/pseuds/RaccoonSinQueen)
> 
> First time doing an undertale fic, first time doing a fic with this many relationships and characters.
> 
> Please bear with me on this bumpy as hell ride we are about to go on.
> 
> Oh, and please buckle your seatbelt, I'm sure Papyrus would want you to.
> 
> (psst, also not beta'd so if you see any mistakes, feel free to call me out on them)


	2. Arise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooooooooommmmeeeeee-

“Nnnh…” you groaned, sitting up in the bed you had been resting in. Okay, maybe you shouldn’t have done that so quickly because the movement sent the room spinning in dizzying spirals and swirls of colors that made you nauseous. You whimpered as you lay back down, watching as the dizzy spell faded when you remained still. Goodness you felt terrible.

“HUMAN? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?” a loud voice you didn’t recognize sounded to your left and you looked over, blinking your eyes a few times, letting the image register. 

Huh, another skeleton. Wait just a second…

You shrieked before you could stop yourself, causing the tall skeleton in the room to shriek in response. You scrambled up on the bed to the wall it rested against, hands splayed out on the cool plaster. What was a skeleton doing in your room?!

“What are you doing in my _room_?!” your voice cracked and you coughed slightly, covering your mouth with your hand – that had a bandage on it. 

Come to think about it, you were covered in gauze and bandages.

“HUMAN PLEASE CALM DOWN YOU ARE STILL INJURED!” The skeleton said, flinging around red glove covered hands in what seemed to be worry. “VERY BADLY MIGHT I ADD? YOU HAVE ALSO BEEN COUGHING IN YOUR SLEEP AND RESTLESSLY TOSSING AND TURNING.”

You swallowed the fearful lump in your throat, noticing how thirsty you were and how sore your throat felt, before looking at the skeleton in the room questioningly, you noticed that no – this wasn’t your room – this room had too many nice things and knick knacks lying around. It felt too cozy to be your room. 

You didn’t trust your voice just yet after your voice crack. You didn’t exactly trust…him either, whoever he was.

Monsters were not new to you. At the job you worked at – however much you hated it because you were a good worker and they took advantage of your excellent work ethic , working you until you could feel your whole body aching – monsters were not regular customers, though whenever you served them, they were very kind and polite. They usually came from far away towns and cities and only stopped in your little town to experience what little there was to offer. Which wasn’t much. You remembered your fellow employees greeting the monsters with tight, strained smiles that seemed to dampen the monsters’ spirits – until you came along with a fresh, genuine smile that brightened their day back up.

Monsters were usually kinder than people. You had experienced that firsthand now.

But how did you get here? Why were you in a strange room with skeletal monsters? Why did you hurt so bad and keep getting dizzy?

The skeleton seemed to understand your confusion and sat at attention. “GREETINGS HUMAN! I AM GLAD TO FINALLY MEET YOU! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! I HAVE BEEN WATCHING OVER YOU WHILE YOU RESTED FOR APPROXIMATELY…” he paused, looking at the clock that was perched right on the bedside table. “NINE HOURS, THIRTY MINUTES AND SEVEN SECONDS…MAKE THAT TEN SECONDS!” he corrected himself.

You blinked at him. Boy was he loud. You couldn’t help but feel that this monster wasn’t a threat to you. At least not right now and you relaxed your aching body. “How…how did I get here?” you croaked out, coughing a bit more, the soreness in your throat affecting your voice. God you were thirsty.

“AH, JUST A SECOND HUMAN,” he scrambled away suddenly and exited into a door that seemed to be a bathroom connected to this small but rather cozy room. He came back with a paper cup full of cold water, handing it to you. You couldn’t help but smile in thanks and grabbed it gently, drinking the liquid greedily. “DID THE LIQUID REFRESHMENT HELP?”

“It did, thank you very much Papyrus,” you replied, leaning back in the bed, though keeping him in your eyesight. “Can you tell me why I’m here…? Or…where this is?”

“AH YES!” Papyrus jumped up. “THE HOURS BEFORE YOU GOT HERE WERE DARK AND STORMY! VERY MUCH LIKE THE ATMOSPHERE IN THE MOVIES THAT RED AND BLACK ENJOY WATCHING AND FORCING BLUE AND I TO WATCH IN ORDER TO GAUGE OUR REACTIONS BUT NO NO NO, I AM GETTING OFF TOPIC! THEY TOOK MY CAR FOR A LITTLE, HOW YOU SAY, JOYRIDE? THEY DID NOT SEE YOU IN THE ROAD, HUMAN. THEY HIT YOU AND DAMAGED MY POOR CAR!” he seemed pretty distraught over both you getting injured, and his poor car. “ANOTHER RESIDENT OF THIS HOUSE, WE CALL HIM G, CARRIED YOU IN ACCOMPANIED WITH THE HELP OF THE ONE WE CALL RED! THEY WERE THE ONES WHO WERE JOYRIDING SO RECKLESSLY AND WHO HIT YOU.”

You were rather curious as to whom all the people he had mentioned were, but thanks to his recap you could feel the memories flooding back to you. That’s right. You had escaped your apartment after seeing your boyfriend and his…lady friend. You had been walking around in the rain for who knows how many hours…and wouldn’t you know it, the universe decided to play another mean trick on you and send a red convertible flying your way to knock you down once more.

Or was it really being knocked down if the force was enough to send you hurtling a few feet in the air?

“AND YOU ARE IN THE HUMBLE ABODE OF THE SKELETON FAMILY!” Papyrus had continued to talk as you had been thinking, your attention drawing to him again. “IT CONSISTS OF ALL SKELETON MONSTERS! WE MEAN YOU NO HARM HUMAN…” he nodded, trailing off a bit at the end and leaving you to guess at the words he didn’t speak, though it was quite easy to fill in the gaps.

Did they think you intended to harm them after what happened? They had shown you such hospitality…

“[PAPYRUS? ARE YOU LETTING OUR DEAR GUEST GET HER REST?]” a deep voice that sounded like it was filled with static filtered into the room, and you weren’t sure where to look for the owner of the voice before you saw another doorway, opposite the one of the bathroom. In the doorway stood another skeleton monster. “[HELLO, I AM GLAD TO SEE YOU ARE AWAKE. THAT IS GOOD. THAT IS PROGRESS.]” This skeleton monster was just a few inches taller than Papyrus. He had one crack in his skull that seemed to start from nowhere, stopping at his right eye – socket? – and another that went down his left eye – socket?? – before disappearing into his soft smile.

Those cracks in his skull reminded you of someone though…

He entered the room and sat on the edge of the bed you were resting in, mindful of the space you must need. Foreign place and all that, before holding out a hand…a skeletal hand that had a large circular hole missing from it. Well, then. “[MY NAME IS DOCTOR W. D. GASTER. YOU MAY CALL ME DOCTOR GASTER OR GASTER IF YOU SO PREFER.]” You hesitantly looked at the hand held out in front of you before placing yours in it. His hand almost dwarfed yours, causing you to inhale softly at the unexpected warmth he emitted as he shook it gently before letting go, his hands falling into his lap. You noticed they both had holes in them. 

“[YOU WERE BROUGHT TO MY CARE AFTER MY…]” he seemed to pause. “[…SONS HIT YOU WITH THEIR VEHICLE. YOU DO NOT SEEM TO HAVE ANY BROKEN BONES. WHICH SURPRISES ME GREATLY WHEN I WAS TOLD YOU TOOK A BIT OF A FLIGHT THROUGH THE AIR, BUT I BELIEVE YOU HAVE A VERY MILD CONCUSSION, ALONG WITH A FEW SCRAPES AND BRUISES THAT SHOULD HEAL RATHER QUICKLY WITH THE PROPER CARE.]” he explained. 

“IT WAS MY VEHICLE, NOT THEIRS! I SHOULD BE THE ONE TO BLAME FOR NOT KEEPING BETTER TRACK OF IT!” Papyrus proceeded to bawl letting out soft “nyoo hoo hoos”, and you were wondering how a skeleton could cry…orange tears? What. Gaster shushed the tall skeleton gently, patting his back.

“[PLEASE PAPYRUS, OUR GUEST IS STILL RESTING.]” he gently chided, and Papyrus quickly sobered up, looking at Gaster, then at you.

“Papyrus…” your quiet voice filled the room, making both skeletons turn to you, Papyrus wiping orange tears from his eyes. “I’m sure you didn’t mean for them to take your car, and I’m sure you did everything in your power to stop them.” You smiled softly, looking at him kindly. “Plus you were kind enough to watch over me while I rested, making sure nothing happened to me, right?” he nodded furiously in response. “Then…in that case, I thank you…” you paused. “The great Papyrus.”

“DO YOU TRULY MEAN IT, HUMAN?” Papyrus asked, literal stars in his eyes. How in the world…?

“Yes?” you peered over to Doctor Gaster, who shrugged, though his smile was still plastered to his face.

“OH HUMAN THIS IS WONDERFUL! I WAS THINKING I WOULD NOT GET THE CHANCE TO BE YOUR FRIEND BECAUSE YOU MIGHT BE MAD AT ME FOR FAILING TO PROTECT YOU FROM GETTING HURT BY STOPPING THEM FROM USING MY BEAUTIFUL CAR – WHICH ISN’T AS COOL AS MY RACECAR BED BUT IT IS QUITE CLOSE MIGHT I SAY!” he puffed out his chest.

“Wait you didn’t need to protect…” you started before pausing, registering what he had said. You had only just met him why did he feel the need to protect you? Wait, did he just say he wanted to be your friend?

“THAT SETTLES IT! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND AND PROTECT YOU FROM FURTHER HARM SHOULD IT EVER COME TO FIND YOU!” you let out a giggle, confirming your suspicions, attempting to hide your giggling with your bandaged hand.

“Thank you Papyrus, I’ve never felt safer,” you say as he proceeded to bound out of the room, shouting about you being his newest friend.

“[I AM SORRY FOR THE ENTHUSIASM FROM MY SON,]” Gaster gave you an apologetic look that you shook your head at. “[IT MUST BE QUITE TIRING.]” Even though he said that, the doctor had a fond look in his eyes as his gaze lingered to where Papyrus had exited. You could still hear his loud, excited voice.

“He’s very nice. I wouldn’t mind having him as a friend…” you began to say before pausing, curling in upon yourself. Right…you had no friends here. You left them all when you stormed out of the apartment and out of his life.

“[HUMAN?]” Gaster’s voice called to you gently as he placed a skeletal hand on your shoulder, attention back on you.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” you replied, smiling a strained smile to him. He didn’t seem too convinced, but decided to ignore it.

“[I REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT BECAUSE OF THE POSSIBLE SEVERITY OF YOUR CONCUSSION – AND THE FACT THAT YOU SEEM TO BE DEVELOPING THE BEGINNING SIGNS OF THE COMMON COLD –, YOU SHOULD STAY HERE ANOTHER NIGHT. JUST SO THAT I CAN MAKE SURE YOU ARE ALRIGHT.]” he suggested. It really didn’t sound like he was giving you much wiggle room, but the option was still there. You were in a strange place with a bunch of strange people…monsters…skeletons. How many of them actually lived in this house? How big was it?

“Thank you, Doctor Gaster…but I don’t want to trouble you anymore than I have already.”

“[THE TROUBLE LIES NOT WITH YOU, BUT WITH MY RATHER IRRESPONSIBLE SONS. THEY ARE THE ONES WHO HURT YOU AND CAUSED YOU TO BE IN THIS PREDICAMENT.]” he sighed, shaking his head. “[I APOLOGIZE IN THEIR STEAD FOR THEIR BEHAVIOR.]”

You blink and stutter. This man…skeleton…monster…was a total gentleman. “No, please!” you exclaimed, the sudden change in volume making you cough a few times, causing him to blink and look at you, both in curiosity and worry. “I shouldn’t have been walking out that late at night…in the rain…where nobody could…see me…” Your voice got quieter as you continued to talk.

“[TELL ME, HUMAN...WHY WERE YOU OUT SO LATE AT NIGHT?]” Gaster turned to face you fully, purple pinpricks of light trained on you.

“Well…” you began, hugging yourself again, trying to appear smaller, a defense tactic you had always done when your life got super hectic. “I uh…ran away from home?” it wasn’t exactly a lie. You didn’t want to explain what had just happened to you when the wound was so fresh and new, and you seemed to show those feelings on your face since Gaster didn’t press you any further, simply putting a hand to his chin and nodding. 

“[WAS YOUR SITUATION REALLY THAT BAD, HUMAN?]” he asked simply, voice a bit more gentle. 

You curled more inwards, thinking back to the past. Now that you had time to think about it your boyfriend – ex-boyfriend – and you regularly engaged in shouting matches that regularly ended in him playing the victim card, even when you were in the right. But he had always made up for it in varying ways…didn’t that count?

“It wasn’t bad…at times,” you mumbled out from behind your arms.

“[I SEE…]” Gaster replied, standing up from his spot on the bed, it seemed he still wasn’t satisfied with your answer, but he saw either no need to push any further, or just simply didn’t feel like it was his place.

You were thankful for that. 

“[TAKE ALL THE TIME YOU NEED TO REST, HUMAN. I WILL CHECK BACK IN A FEW HOURS TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE RECOVERING WELL.]” he went to the door that you guessed led out into the rest of the house. “[SLEEP WELL.]” he said, turning off the light and sending the room into darkness.

As he was about to shut the door, you called out to him, “Doctor Gaster!” He paused, his hand resting on the doorknob. “My…my name is ____...” you whispered softly, wondering if he had even heard you.

He seemed to have heard as he smiled gently at the confession of your name. “[SLEEP WELL, ____.]” he corrected himself, closing the door behind him. 

The room was swathed in darkness.

You curled in tighter to yourself and let out a sigh, shutting your eyes as you rolled back onto the bed, facing the wall.

You were never a fan of the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BODY ONCE TOLD ME
> 
> no but really I'll try not to put smash mouth lyrics in every A/N pfft.
> 
> Also holy shit guys, this much traffic on this silly little thing already? I love all of you.
> 
> Your comments, kudos, hits, and bookmarks make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. <3
> 
> I'm also trying to keep 1 or 2 chapters ahead before I post a new one, even if it's just a rough draft. Better than nothing, right?


	3. Being Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got away from me, sorry. And if it seems to be all over the place, I apologize as well. ;u;

The second time you wake up in the strange house that was apparently filled to the brim with skeletons, you were alone, and slightly less disoriented, the light pouring in from the window above the bed actually waking you up. The pounding in your head had eased considerably, and after resting for nearly two days straight – your sick body had had a chance to fight off most of the illness that had come with staying in the freezing rain for hours on end. 

You heaved a sigh as you sat up in the bed, looking out the window, watching as the light from the sun started to fill the world with life. The birds were starting to sing their songs and you wondered how many flowers would bloom today as you rested your head in your hand, blinking lazily at the serene scene. By this time, if you were still with him…you would be getting ready for work. At the job you hated, yet you had to do to pay the bills.

You felt something tickling against the skin on your chest and you looked down to figure out what it was.

The necklace that your ex-boyfriend had given you. You were still wearing it. 

You gritted your teeth in fury as you literally tore the offending jewelry off of your neck, making a movement to throw it and watch it shatter to a million pieces…before you stopped, hand grasping the jewels and arm poised to launch. You slowly brought the necklace back to your level, eyeing it.

Why?

Was something wrong with you that he saw cheating on you as the only escape?

You brought the necklace up to your face and you felt hot fresh tears running down your cheeks. Great you were crying again. You rubbed at your eyes vigorously, setting down the necklace on the bedside table and curling up in the sheets again, softly closing your eyes. A few more minutes of sleep wouldn’t hurt…would it?

Sharp raps on the door made you jolt awake, sitting up in the bed and eyeing the doorway. Guess you weren’t getting back to sleep, huh?

Nothing happened when you waited for whoever was behind the door to come in.

“C-Come in?” you tried, and only then did the door push open, revealing…

Another skeleton. Why were you expecting anything different? Though this one seemed strangely familiar, if not a bit scary. Red eyes glared down at you with the intensity of a roaring wildfire, a black jacket seemed to swallow him up in its polyester fabric – though it looked worn and well cared for – and he had rows of sharp teeth, with one glistening gold fang. He was short and stocky, though you believed that if you were standing up next to him, he would probably only be a few inches shorter than you.

“rise and shine, _girly_ ,” he said, grin plastered on his face as he growled out the pet name. You reflexively shrunk, before another, more familiar walked through the doorway, having to duck his head to do so. 

“[RED, DO BE MINDFUL OF OUR GUEST.]” Gaster’s tone left nothing for the much shorter skeleton to argue with, and he only stuffed his hands in his pockets with a huff, looking anywhere in the room but at you. “[GOOD MORNING ____, I DO HOPE YOU SLEPT WELL?]” he asked, mouth curling into a gentle smile that you couldn’t help but reciprocate. He had called you by your name…you also couldn’t help but notice that he was carrying a tray of delicious and fluffy looking waffles covered in thick syrup with berries on the side, a glass of orange juice also settled neatly on the tray.

“I-I did, thank you for lending me this room again,” you stuttered out, fiddling with the blankets, your stomach yearning for the food, yet too nervous to ask for it directly. You didn’t realize how hungry you were until the wonderful scent of the waffles and the syrup reached your nose.

“[I WOULD LIKE TO EXAMINE YOU ONE LAST TIME TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE FULLY RECOVERED. YOUR CONCUSSION DID NOT SEEM TOO SEVERE, BUT I WOULD STILL RECOMMEND GOING TO A HOSPITAL IN CASE YOU ARE STILL HAVING SYMPTOMS.]” he approached the bed after setting the tray down and fiddled with his hole-ridden hands. You realized he was asking for permission to touch you.

“Oh,” what a meaningful thing to respond with. “Please, do anything you need to do.” You shuffled closer to the edge of the bed, allowing Gaster easier access to you.

Gaster wasted no time. His hands came forward and grasped the sides of your head – although gently – and he turned your skull this way and that, making various humming noises as he inspected your injuries.

Using one hand, he started pressing near the spot on your head you had fallen on, and actually found the spot as you hissed in pain, unconsciously attempting to wriggle away from him. He kept you in place though and you couldn’t help but shoot a look over at the smaller skeleton that seemed to be enjoying this whole scene, snickering as you made the pained noises. Gaster than moved to the various cuts and scrapes along your arms, changing the bandages as he did so, nodding. “[YOU ARE HEALING QUITE NICELY HUMAN. YOUR CONCUSSION SEEMS TO NOT BE AS SEVERE AS I ORIGINALLY THOUGHT IT WAS. THE SYMPTOMS YOU WERE EXPERIENCING THAT MADE ME BELIEVE YOU WERE DEVELOPING THE COMMON COLD SEEM TO HAVE DISAPPEARED AS WELL.]” he hummed in thought. “[THE HUMAN BODY IS TRULY FASCINATING WITH ITS RAPID RECOVERY RATE.]” 

“Thank you?” you questioned, and he in turn nodded, smile on his face.

“[IT IS SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF.]” you felt like there was something more he wanted to add, but didn’t feel comfortable with saying in front of you. “[NOW, IN REGARDS OF YOU HAVING RECOVERED…]” he trailed off as he saw your gaze drifting over to the waffles. “[GOODNESS, HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN? THESE ARE FROM THE OTHER ONE WHO CAUSED YOU SUCH TROUBLE. HE SENDS HIS REGARDS.]” Gaster passed the tray over to you and you couldn’t help the smile on your face as you immediately dug in, the waffles light and fluffy and just the right warmth and texture. The syrup wasn’t too sweet and the berries added the right amount of tartness to finish off the delicious dish.

It was quite the perfect breakfast as you swallowed a mouthful of juice as Gaster spoke up again.

“[AS I WAS SAYING BEFORE…IN REGARDS OF YOU NOW HAVING RECOVERED…]” he trailed off again…at a loss for words. Strange, in the short time you knew this monster, you sensed this was out of character for him to be losing his words like this. You wondered if he was just too nervous to ask you to leave his house. 

“just ask her already,” the other skeleton in the room huffed, glaringly annoyed. You remembered that Gaster had called him Red. Oh, so this was who Papyrus was talking about too? He was one of the ones who had hit you with the car. Jerk.

“[I WAS TALKING IT OVER WITH MY SONS, AND THEY SEEM TO AGREE WITH ME, WELL MOST OF THEM…BUT I MUST ASK YOU A QUESTION FIRST, ____,]” he paused, wanting your full attention. You set the fork down you had been using to shovel waffle and berries into your mouth, looking at him pointedly as he continued.“[THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE TIME YOU HAVE BEEN HOUSED AT THIS ESTATE, UNDER MY CARE, I HAVE NOT FAILED TO NOTICE THAT YOU HAVE NOT ONCE ASKED TO CALL ANY FAMILY MEMBER OR FRIEND TO LET THEM KNOW YOU ARE SAFE. THIS TROUBLES ME GREATLY. ESPECIALLY AFTER THE SMALL CONVERSATION THAT WE HAD,]” he paused again, taking a deep breath – but why would he need to, he’s a skeleton? – you turned your attention back to Gaster.

“[____...DO YOU HAVE A HOME TO RETURN TO?]” he asked, peering at you. You froze under his gaze and you couldn’t help but feel Red’s eyes gazing at you too, the atmosphere of the room suddenly thick and heavy.

Oh boy, laying the big questions on you immediately, huh?

“and don’t lie, girly,” Red spoke up, stepping closer and stealing a strawberry off of your plate. You watched his jaw open wide, showing off all of his sharp fangs as he popped the strawberry into his mouth. Where did it even go? “we’ll know when you’re lying…” he grinned, though honestly you didn’t know how they could know, and Gaster shot him a warning glance.

“To be honest…” you started, eyes turning back to you. “I really don’t…have a home to…return to.” You said, curling in upon yourself again, your eyes drifting towards the necklace you had placed on the nightstand. “I had left it…yesterday. I told you I ran away, remember? That means not having the intention to return. And to be honest…I don’t think he’d even want me to come back.” Your laugh was hollow as you whispered the last part, looking at them. “But, I thank you very much for your hospitality though. You didn’t have to take me back here or care for me…it was very nice of you. I’ll get out of your hair now, metaphorically speaking of cour-,” you were stopped as Gaster raised a single hand, though through the hole you could still see him peering down at you, eyes stern.

“[DO YOU WISH TO LIVE WITH US?]” he asked simply.

What?

“What?”

“[HUMAN…____...THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT I CANNOT TELL YOU AT THIS MOMENT. BUT ONE THING I CAN IS THAT I KNOW YOU ARE VERY KIND. I CANNOT ANSWER WHY OR HOW I KNOW THAT AT THIS MOMENT,]” he breathed out. “[I FEEL TERRIBLE FOR WHAT HAS HAPPENED, AND I HAVE CONVERSED THIS FEELING, AND THIS OPTION WITH RED AND G. BOTH OF THEM FEEL THE SAME…IF ONLY SOMEWHAT,]” he looked over at Red who shuffled a bit and pretended to kick a non-existent dust bunny, choosing to remain silent throughout this exchange. “[WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO STAY HERE, ONLY IF YOU WANT TO OF COURSE. I WILL TALK TO THE OTHERS LATER.]”

You blanched at him, staring into his eyes. Stay…with the skeleton family? Most of whom you still haven’t met yet? Two of which – one who was standing in the room, and well…the other made you waffles which were probably cold by now – hit you with their car…it wasn’t the best starting point. You looked down at the soggy waffles, picking at them with the fork that had been provided for you.

What would you say? Would you say yes? It wasn’t like you had anywhere else to go.

“Are there any conditions?” you found yourself asking, and you couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous at the grin that graced Gaster’s mouth.

Gaster raised himself from the bed and walked over to the door that led to the rest of the house, opening it. On the door you noticed was a whiteboard tacked neatly on it with “TO DO” written in what you suspected to be permanent marker. “[SIMPLY FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS. WHATEVER I WRITE ON THIS BOARD, YOU MUST ACCOMPLISH BY THE END OF THE DAY. IS THAT CLEAR?]” he asked, placing his hands behind his back. It seemed to be a very natural position for him.

You mulled this over. So basically you had to follow commands from who seemed to be the head skeleton of the house, and in return you got room and board? You were slightly unnerved by what Gaster would demand you to do, whether he would have you do something that you would be uncomfortable with or not. Yet, he gave you the option to back out of this entire thing; possibly he would do the same when it came to the tasks he gave you? It…it sounded too good to be true if that was the case.

And after what had happened, you weren’t sure if it was even true as you looked at Gaster. He seemed to be taking your silence into consideration, and was nervously fiddling with his hands again. On the other hand, when your eyes drifted over to Red, he seemed to not care, but his eyes had drifted over to your necklace on the bedside table, causing your eyes to drift there as well. 

The memories came flooding back, the bad ones trumping the good ones of your newly broken relationship.

“I’ll do it,” you decided, eyes lingering on the chain before looking at Gaster who looked positively thrilled.

“[EXCELLENT,]” he grinned, looking over at Red, who let out a sigh. “[IF YOU NEED TO, RED WILL ACCOMPANY YOU BACK TO YOUR PREVIOUS RESIDENCY TO RETRIEVE ANYTHING YOU MIGHT NEED. YOU SEEMED TO BE LACKING…A LOT OF NECESSITIES WHEN YOU CAME INTO MY CARE.]”

“why do i have to do it? why can’t g do it?” Red frowned harder, if that was even possible, motioning to you vaguely.

“[G FEELS REMORSE FOR WHAT HAS HAPPENED, YOU ON THE OTHER HAND, FEEL NOTHING BUT RESENTMENT TOWARDS THE HUMAN.]” oh that’s lovely. “[THIS COULD BE AN EXCELLENT BONDING EXERCISE,]” Gaster clapped his hands together. “[GET TO IT, THEN.]” he said with a small chuckle, leaving no room for argument as he exited the room, leaving you and Red alone together.

Red’s eyes trailed over to you as you continued to pick at your soggy waffles and syrup soaked berries with the fork. “get up.” He growled. “we’re getting this over with.”

You blinked as you obediently moved the tray away from you and climbed out of the bed in the first time in two days, wobbling a bit on your legs before finding your footing. Red was already out of the door faster than you could catch up to him, stumbling after him with an exclamation of “Hey!” He waited for you to catch up, frown etched into his face as he led you through the house. You took this chance to sightsee, this being the first time you were out of the room since you were in this house. The walls were almost bare down this hallway, but as Red walked and you followed, you saw more evidence of life. Pictures hung in frames on the walls. You guessed that the area of the house you were in wasn’t used…or visited much.

There was a picture of Gaster with some dinosaur looking monster, arm around her shoulder as she held a rolled up paper with a ribbon tied around it. A degree perhaps?

Another picture had Gaster as well, only with a large goat – cow – looking monster. This monster seemed huge. Not just in height, but in his presence. They were shaking hands, Gaster’s hands barely visible from the goat monster’s furry ones.

Another had Gaster holding two smaller skeleton monsters. One was swaddled in a blue blanket, the other in an orange one. You peered at it longer and couldn’t help but notice the peaceful expression on Gaster’s face as he held the two monsters, peering down at them in utter adoration.

“i really don’t know what the old man sees in you, girly,” Red stated suddenly, taking a sharp corner as his voice trailed away. You turned away from the picture, racing to catch back up to Red, huffing in answer. He only grinned up at you, pearly white fangs glistening. “listen…not all of us are going to be happy that you’re here, better get used to it. i’m one of them.” He said, stopping at the foyer of the house.

You frowned at his words. Sure you didn’t expect everyone to be happy you were living here. Even though monsters had been on the surface for a few years now, tensions between the two races were still high. Monster-phobia still ran rampant throughout the human race, causing hate groups to surface. Though monsters had gained lots of ground in the few years they had been above ground thanks to their ambassador – gaining the right to vote, own property, the ability to work and walk amongst humans – it seemed like the human race was the one that needed to catch up.

You noticed it was eerily quiet in the foyer after coming back from your thoughts – in the house in general, but Red didn’t seem to mind, or care at all. A large chandelier was above the two of you, beautifully reflecting rainbows of light that came in from the multitudes of windows in the room and in front of you were a set of two oak doors, behind you were a set of stairs that you assumed led to the other parts of the house.

Red walked outside, waiting for you to walk through the threshold of the door before shutting it behind you a little bit harder than necessary. Seemed he was still peeved that he had to accompany you the whole way to grab your things. “alright, girly, here’s the deal,” he started, stepping towards you. “i want to get this over with as soon as possible, i’m certain you feel the same. amirite?” he asked.

You nodded silently. You certainly didn’t want to hang around this skeleton any longer than you had to. He seemed to hate your guts for some reason and you hadn’t even done anything to earn his hatred, as an individual person at least. But you could understand that he had a reason to, after all the terrible things that humans did to the monsters. 

Plus he was the one who hit you with a freaking car.

But you also just didn’t want to go back to the apartment. You had memorized your ex-boyfriend’s schedule by now, and you figured that by this time, he would be at work.  
But would someone else be there? Accompanying the spot you once held? Would you walk in on another scene that would plague your thoughts? Another scene that would remind you that you weren’t good enough for him? That he had to find comfort in another person as you two were still together in order to find completion?

The thought made you visibly shiver as you wrapped your arms around yourself, hoping that Red didn’t notice. If he did, he made no mention of it, his eyes glowering at your form.

“thought so. we’re going to take a little short cut then.” He said, grin returning to his face. It was wide and you didn’t trust it. “is there any landmark or something that is close to where you live?”

“Uh, why?” you couldn’t help but ask.

“because i can’t go anywhere i haven’t been before,” he rolled his eyes like it was common knowledge, holding out his hand for you to take. “so tell me.”

You stared at his hand, lack of trust showing in your eyes before you gently put your hand in his, noticing that his touch was colder than Gaster’s. Strange. “There’s a coffee shop, a few blocks away from my house,” you told him, looking up to gauge his reaction. “It’s where I work…or used to work.”

Red simply nodded once, knowing where you were talking about. You saw his right eye light up, flaming tendrils of red magic licking around his face as he tugged you forward roughly. You grunted at the rough handling, eyes falling shut before you felt a sensation of falling. You attempted to grasp out for something, anything. Something to stop the feeling of weightlessness.

“stop…struggling…!” Red exclaimed, his voice sounding so far away and yet so near. You felt his grip on your hand tighten, the small amount of contact the only tether you two had.

After what seemed like an eternity, the feeling of weightlessness and falling was gone. You felt something solid against your front and something underneath your feet. You didn’t dare open your eyes, afraid you might see something – or nothing – if you did.

“u-uh, girly?” Red’s voice cut through the darkness. “you can let me go now.”

You opened your eyes and looked around. You had moved. You were currently standing in front of your place of employment…holding onto the skeleton for dear life. Well it was a rather frightening experience. He was looking from you, to the other – human – city goers who were looking at the two of you with confusion and dare you say…disgust?

You immediately jumped away from him, fiddling with your hands. “S-Sorry.”

He shrugged in response, and you noticed he had a faint dusting of red on his cheeks. Was he embarrassed that others had seen the two of you so close to one another? He couldn’t seem to meet your eyes. “s’no problem…my short cuts aren’t for everyone.”

“But how did we get from your house to all the way…” you paused, looking behind you to where the mountain was – where the estate rested. “Down here…?”

Red grinned up at you, gold tooth glinting in the sunlight. “magic.”

“Helpful,” you replied, crossing your arms. You were about to start walking towards the apartment before a voice called out your name. Turning around, you saw one of your coworkers stepping outside of the door from the shop. They looked overjoyed to see you…before they saw you had company, their face falling into a bit of a frown before lightening up into a smile you could easily recognize as fake.

“____! I’m so glad you are here! And you brought a friend…” their voice fell a bit when they regarded Red, and Red scowled back at them.

“I’m not uh…staying,” you replied, scratching the back of your head nervously. Your coworker gave you a confused look. “Look, I know I haven’t even told the boss yet, but I’m quitting. I…got a new job.” You spared a glance down at Red, but he didn’t look back at you, only continuing to glare at your coworker.

Seemed he could find someone else he hated more than you at this moment.

“What? But you can’t leave! You’re the best worker we have!” Your coworker whined. “Surely there’s some way you can still stay? I’m sure the boss will be happy to raise your pay?”

You fell silent, grasping one of your arms. Yeah, that would help a lot…but if you were going to be living with the skeleton family…the commute just wouldn’t work. It was hard enough to walk to and from the shop each day after a long enough day of already being on your feet. And even then your coworkers still took advantage of you. They asked you to cover shift after shift, making it so you were the only one in bustling shop, taking care of both the register and filling orders. It was exhausting physically and mentally and you couldn’t see why you didn’t quit sooner.

Oh, right. Because you had to keep the roof over yours and your ex-boyfriend’s heads. You had to be the one to keep the bills paid, making sure you still had water and electricity. He had only pitched in a little, saying he was saving up to buy a car to make it easier on the both of you. You had believed it then, and a part of you still believed it now.

“I…I just can’t,” you replied, eyes falling to the ground.

“____ you can’t just - ,” your coworker started before you noticed the familiar crackling of magic. You looked beside you and you saw Red’s eye flaming again.

“she said she was done, bud,” he gritted out, teeth baring that made your coworker step back in fear. “now _go away_.” He growled the last part, and that sent your coworker fleeing back into the safety of the shop. You heaved out a breath you hadn’t known you had been holding, looking at Red.

“Hey…thanks,” you said to him, soft smile appearing on your face, looking right into the red light of his eyes.

Red flushed again as he stared at you, red dusting his pale face before he escaped into the fluff of his jacket. “don’t think too much of it, kid…” his growl was a mumble as he began walking ahead, you following after him. “just hate seeing people get walked on…that’s all.”

Your smile stayed on your face as the two of you walked towards your apartment, easily falling into step with the skeleton. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as you thought he was.

Huh, wait a minute.

He hadn’t called you girly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm also not sure if I'm writing UF!Sans right aaaaaaa ;u; (buthimbeingprotectiveismyfav)
> 
> Also please let me know if you see any mistakes. Love all of you. <3
> 
> (psssst, we get to meet everyone else next chapter!)


	4. Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> goodness I hope I am writing everyone alright.
> 
> getting this chapter out a tiny bit early since I am going camping this weekend with my significant other.

It was about a twenty minute walk to your now old apartment, and when you were in front of it, the key in your pocket suddenly felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. You looked over at Red who shrugged, leaning against the wall of the building, closing his eye sockets with a soft click. Seems he’d wait outside for you to get done gathering your things before he’d take another one of his insane short cuts to get you two back to the estate.

You walked inside the building, the familiar electronic door opening for you. It seemed like a death sentence as you hesitantly waved hello to the receptionist you had grown familiar with. She was none the wiser as she returned the wave while you walked up the short staircase that led you to the second floor, where your apartment was.

Soon you were outside of the door, pausing at the worn down look of it. So many memories flooding back as you unconsciously pulled out the key, letting it hover just inches before the keyhole.

There was the time you had to literally carry your ex-boyfriend home because he had gotten so drunk he couldn’t drive safely. While he fought against you, you nursed water and food into him before putting him to bed, saying that you would be there when he woke up. You were and he was thankful.

There was that time when you had come home late from working a double shift, and he had yelled at you, demanding where you were. You had yelled back that you were at work, though at that time you called it “the shit place I go to so I can pay the bills because you won’t” and that just opened up a huge can of worms. You had slept on the couch that night.

There was another time when he had been the one to carry you home after you had collapsed from over exhaustion. He had tucked you in, catered to a few of your needs, before a friend of his called and he said it was an emergency which he had to go attend to. You vaguely remembered that through your exhausted state…you heard a woman’s voice on the other line.

You gritted your teeth and pushed the key into the keyhole, opening the door.

You expected the apartment to look different…but it didn’t.

Save for the few suitcases that stood by the door. Seems he had done your packing for you.

“Hun? Are you home? …oh…” a female voice radiated through the apartment. A woman stepped out from the bedroom, clad only in one of his shirts and her underwear. You used to wear that shirt as well. She flushed, visibly embarrassed. “I uh…I wasn’t expecting to see you. He told me you might stop by.”

“I’m just here to grab my stuff,” your voice sounded cold, even to you as you gestured to the suitcases.

“I understand…” she mumbled, shifting on her feet. “Look I…” she began before you held up a hand, silencing her. She was the same woman from the night you had discovered he was cheating on you. You were honestly surprised that even when he admitted to you he had been seeing other people for two of the three years you had been together…she was still here.

Maybe she wanted to fix him? If that was even possible. You mentally shook your head, clearing yourself of thoughts and focusing back on the girl.

“You don’t need to explain yourself,” you began setting the suitcases outside the door. “Just treat him right…” you couldn’t believe you had just said that after all he had done to you, but you smiled at the woman in front of you. “If he’s happy with another girl…let him be. I’m just sorry I couldn’t be the one…” you sniffled, the woman watching as you broke down again, tears running down your face and dripping off of your chin. “Ah…ha ha…I’m sorry.” You attempted to wipe away the tears, the woman scurrying around and grabbing some tissues from where you always kept them, handing them to you. You thanked her and dabbed your eyes, willing your tears to stop. “Watch out for yourself as well…I wish you two happiness.” Those were your parting words as you gave her the key, closing the door behind you.

You could swear you hear it open again, feeling eyes against your back, but you didn’t look behind you as you gathered up your things, walking down the hall to the elevator this time. You reached the lobby as you walked to the receptionist, bags in hand. She looked confused. 

“I’ll no longer be living here…the lease is in both of our names, so there shouldn’t be any trouble…but if there is, feel free to give me a call.” She nodded in response, watching as you walked out the doors. 

For the last time.

One of Red’s eyes opened as you walked out. “ready to go?” he asked, before seeing the puffiness of your eyes. “kid?” his brows furrowed, frown deepening.

You shook your head. This was neither the time nor the place. “Can…can we just go?” you asked, your voice so tiny and quiet you wondered if Red could even hear you.

Red nodded though, having heard you. “hold on, kid,” he said, one of your hands grasping his shoulder as your other attempted to hold the suitcases. He wrapped an arm around your waist, and soon you felt that uncomfortable weightless feeling again. This time you didn’t struggle.

It was over as soon as it began – much like the first time, and you tried to stop the feeling of vertigo as you gained your footing, suitcases falling from your grasp. You were outside the estate again, back where you started. Away from it all. Yet not far enough.

“hey,” Red’s voice interrupted your dizzy feeling, and you looked at him. Was that a look of concern? “you alright?”

“No more short cuts for a while…” you replied, weak smile coming to your face as he snorted.

“fine by me. too much effort,” he watched you gather up your things again, not even offering to help as you walked up to the door. “eh, kid?” he asked suddenly. You looked at him in question, you gaze seeming to throw him off as he stuttered before shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “ah screw it, nevermind.”

You frowned at him before shrugging and opening the door.

You were expecting the empty foyer again. Not more skeletons. There were six of them here in fact. You recognized one as Papyrus. Gaster seemed to be the only one missing amongst them.

“BROTHER IS THAT?” a skeleton wearing mostly blue exclaimed upon you and Red walking through the door. He looked a lot like Red, except a lot less…edgy. He seemed rather excited to see you. He had a blue neckerchief tied around him, as well as a blue cape. Huh, seemed he really liked the color blue. He was also wearing blue gloves and boots. While his looks reminded you of Red, the way he acted reminded you a lot of Papyrus.

“heh, yep.” Speaking of Papyrus…this one looked like the excitable tall skeleton as well. Except more laid back. He wore an orange hoodie that was really in need of a good wash – with lots of detergent – and cargo shorts with untied shoes. He was also smoking a cigarette. Indoors. While the windows were closed. It made your eyebrow quirk as the scent invaded your nostrils.

“WOWIE! A REAL HUMAN! IN THE FLESH!” well…you did have skin…

“oh god,” Red groaned, boney hand slapping to his face before running down, annoyed look on his face. 

“Come now, Blue…you wouldn’t want to scare her off already…would you?” a soft voice filled your ears and you looked over, mouth almost falling open. If you thought Gaster was tall…then this skeleton was a fricking skyscraper. He looked like he could be a full head taller than the doctor. He had the same cracks in his skull that the doctor had, and you noticed as he placed a gentle hand to calm the other skeleton – Blue he had called him? – you noticed holes in his hands as well. He was wearing a turtleneck that was quite flattering on him and slacks, as well as a long flowing leather coat that almost reached the ground.

“HUMAN! IT IS SO GOOD TO FINALLY MEET YOU! I AM THE MAGNIFICENT SA-,” the excitable skeleton was about to run forward to greet you, before a darker blue surrounded his essence, stopping him in his tracks. 

You looked over and saw that another skeleton was standing next to Papyrus, arm lazily outstretched, magic wafting in flames from his left eye – much like Red – stopping Blue.

“woah there squirt,” this new skeleton drawled, though there was a little bit of sweat on his skull. “tibia honest,” did…did he just make a bone pun? “i’d listen to green. best not to frighten her.” he looked over at you and gave a small wink as he halted the use of his magic, Blue falling to the ground with a gentle _fwump_. He was wearing a blue, puffy jacket with fluffy lining, black sport shorts and were those…pink house slippers?

You saw the skeleton in the orange hoodie shaking slightly, his eyes looking over at Sans with an unreadable, steady expression. It scared you a tiny bit. Sans turned to face him. They seemed to have a silent conversation before the hoodie wearing skeleton seemed to calm down, hands being shoved deeper into the pockets of the dirty sweater and a frown on his face.

“SANS THAT WAS RUDE,” Papyrus chastised the skeleton beside him, who only shrugged, grin plastered back on his face. Oh, so that was Sans, who simply shrugged in response.

“BUT I ONLY WANTED –,” Blue tried again, getting up from the ground, looking from Sans to you, then back at Sans.

“BLUE ONLY WANTED TO GREET THE HUMAN!” Papyrus pitched in.

“YEAH!” Blue exclaimed, defending himself.

“no buts, little blue,” another new voice said, this time beside the skyscraper of a skeleton. This voice sounded familiar though, and as he came into view, you realized you recognized the yellow pinpricks of light that shone from his cracked skull. He took a deep drag of the cigarette he was smoking as well, pulling it away with a skeletal hand that also had holes in it. This must be G, Papyrus had told you about him. He was the other one to hit you with the car.

And okay, maybe you were getting really tired of the smell of smoke invading your nostrils.

“CAN’T I JUST INTRODUCE MYSELF?” Blue stamped his foot impatiently.

“Of course you can,” you spoke up quickly before the others had even a chance to, though even to yourself, you sounded super tired. This skeleton was also as loud as Papyrus, but he had more of an innocent air around him. Blue had stars in his eyes (literally, like Papyrus had when you first woke up the first night in this house) as he ran up to you, this time unhindered, looking at you in wonder. 

You were deftly aware of all the pairs of eyes on you as you knelt down some to reach Blue's level.

“HELLO HUMAN! I AM THE MAGNIFICENT SSSSSssss…ah,” he let the word he was trying to say trail off, seeming to remember something. You were patient and allowed him to introduce himself once again, not pressing on his mistake as he shook his head and tried once more. “HUMAN! I AM THE MAGNIFICIENT BLUE! I HAVE BEEN TOLD LITERALLY NOTHING ABOUT YOU! WE HAVE ONLY BEEN TOLD TO EXPECT SOMEONE COMING IN THE DOOR WITH RED SO WE ALL WAITED HERE FOR THE TWO OF YOU! IT WILL BE NICE TO GET TO KNOW YOU AND TO BECOME YOUR FRIEND!” he stuck out his hand, ready for you to shake it, a large, innocent, toothy grin on his face.

Oh. Oh how cute.

You grasped his hand and shook it, smile unable to stay off of your face, despite how worn out you were. “Hello, Blue. I hope we become the best of friends.”

“MWEH-HEH-HEH! OF COURSE WE WILL! THE MAGNIFICENT BLUE MAKES THE BEST OF FRIENDS!” he pounded a fist to his chest, grin widening even more.

There was one last skeleton though as you finished your interaction with Blue, feeling this more piercing gaze on you during the entire exchange. You felt that if his look could burn your skin, you might have third degree burns. He was standing to the side, away from all the others. This one, too, looked like Papyrus, though an edgier version of him. He had three deep claw-like scars running down the left side of his eye socket, and his mouth seemed to be set in a permanent scowl. He shared the same black and red color pallet as Red did.

He looked rather menacing.

“IT’S ABOUT TIME YOU SHOWED UP, RED,” You noticed that Red’s whole demeanor changed when this new skeleton talked to him. He was nervous, beads of sweat appearing on his head as he started to shake somewhat. The blood-orange lights that were his eyes rested on you, scowl deepening as he began to walk towards Red, Blue and you with long, calculated steps.

“s-sorry b-boss…was a bit-t…busy…” Red stammered out, watching with wide, red eyes as the tall skeleton got closer…and closer…

The taller skeleton was about to open his mouth to say something else before they were interrupted when a static filled voice filled the room.

“[OH GOOD, WE ARE ALL HERE TOGETHER,]” you looked over and noticed that Gaster had somehow come into the room without anyone noticing, wringing his hands together.

Seemed to be a habit.

He walked over to you, noticing you had your bags with you. “[GOOD, GOOD…YOU HAVE YOUR THINGS. PLEASE, GO AHEAD AND TAKE THEM TO YOUR ROOM. WHERE YOU RESTED SHOULD DO JUST FINE AS YOUR LIVING ARRANGEMENTS.]” he smiled at you as you grabbed your things.

“LIVING ARRANGEMENTS?” the tall, edgy looking skeleton from before shrieked – sounding rather unhappy as he glared down at you.

Gaster ignored him pointedly. “[PLEASE MEET US IN THE DINING HALL WHEN YOU ARE THROUGH SETTING YOUR THINGS DOWN. WE HAVE MUCH TO DISCUSS.]”

You found the room with a little bit of difficulty. The winding halls of the estate causing you to get lost once or twice before you finally found it. You opened the door, looking at the room. Not much had changed, but the bed had been made, you wondered who had done that. You also noticed that the white board had been written on.

“LUNCH WOULD BE NICE” was what it said, and you couldn’t help but smile and giggle some as you set down your suitcases. You could unpack them later, Gaster seemed to be in a rush to discuss whatever he needed to discuss with you and everybody that lived in the house. You turned back around and noticed you hadn’t been alone this entire time.

“May I escort you to the dining hall?” the skyscraper of a skeleton – Sans had called him Green? – stood in the doorway, gentle smile on his face. You realized he would have to duck his head to get inside, and you had to suppress a giggle. “I realized you might not know where it is.”

“Oh,” you walked towards him. The closer you got, the taller he seemed to be. “I would appreciate that, yes. Thank you.”

Green let you leave the room first, turning off the light thoughtfully before closing the door to keep your privacy. Gosh he was thoughtful as he began to lead the way. You figured he could easily be three steps ahead of you with how long his legs were, but he kept pace with you quite easily, taking smaller – more mindful steps – so he wouldn’t leave you behind. After a few more twists and turns, you were guided to what Gaster described as the dining hall, which was really just a large dining room, with an equally as large table, surrounded by chairs. Everyone except you and Green were seated at the table, Green even pulling out a chair for you – beside Gaster – before you sat down. He then took a seat beside G.

Gaster regarded your entrance with a kind smile, slowly introducing you to each and every one of the skeletons that sat at the table with you.

Papyrus (sitting attentively), Sans (dozing off), Orange (dozing off while smoking? what), Blue(sitting attentively with stars in his eyes…seriously, how do they do that?), Red (who was sweating profusely while getting rather scary looks from his brother, looking anywhere but at him), Black (the one who was giving Red those scary looks, but also shifting his gaze to glare at you and scowl deeply), Green (also sitting attentively while also looking relaxed), and G (staring at…you? with a smirk on his face with a cigarette burning lazily between his phalanges).

You sniffed in mild annoyance.

After introducing everyone seated around the table, Gaster clasped his hands together, his face hidden behind them besides his eyes, looking around the other monsters around the table, seriousness in his voice. “[I KNOW I HAVE KEPT THIS A SECRET FROM MOST OF YOU…]” he began. “[BUT AS OF NOW, ____WILL BE LIVING WITH US AS OUR…CARETAKER OF SORTS.]” he gestured to you.

“WAIT JUST A SECOND,” Black stood up from his seat, interrupting Gaster, the chair he had been sitting in scooting back and screeching against the floor at the sudden movement. “IF YOU THINK I WILL BE LIVING UNDER THE SAME ROOF AS A DISGUSTING HUMAN,” okay rude. “THEN YOU ARE HORRIBLY WRONG! THE GREAT AND POWERFUL BLACK DOES NOT LIVE WITH SUCH…VERMIN IN THE SAME SPACE!” he glared at you with narrowed eye (sockets….???)

“[HOW DO YOU SUPPOSE YOU WILL FARE OUTSIDE THEN, BLACK?”] Gaster asked him, eyes narrowing. This seemed to silence the other as he crossed his arms, grumbling. You assumed there was more to that short conversation, seeing how uncomfortable Black seemed to appear all of a sudden, before sitting back down in an angry huff. “[YOU CAN SEE IT AS WELL AS I CAN. SHE IS OF NO THREAT TO US. SHE MEANS US NO HARM. I HAVE BEEN THINKING OF GETTING A SORT OF CARETAKER THE DAY OF THE…INCIDENT.]” All of the monsters around the table seemed to visibly shiver, except for Black, Blue, and Papyrus. “[SHE WILL BE FOLLOWING MY DIRECT INSTRUCTIONS.]”

“what if we need something done?” Orange spoke up suddenly, lazy smile still resting on his face. 

“[YOU MAY ASK HER, BUT DO NOT DISTRACT HER FROM WHAT HER MAIN TASK IS FOR THE DAY.]” Gaster answered.

“heh, cool.” He took another drag of the cigarette he had been smoking, blowing it out.

You’d really have to address that.

“WOWIE! THE HUMAN IS LIVING WITH US PAPY CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?” Blue exclaimed, jumping up and down on his chair. “I’LL GET TO BE ABLE TO SHOW HER MY PUZZLES!” You giggled at his childishness. He was quickly starting to grow on you.

“yeah blueberry, it’s pretty cool,” Orange put a hand on his brother, settling him back down in his seat, yet the small skeleton was still visibly excited.

“seems i’ll get to have the purr-fect amount of time to make up for that rather awful first impression, eh, kitten?” G asked, looking over at you with a lazy wink.

Well, that was some kind of nickname he just gave you. And…wait just a second…

Was that another pun?

You stared at G for a second, before you leaned forward, innocent smile on your face. “Purr-haps you’re being too fur-ward with that nickname, G.”

The table went silent as G stared at you, yellow eyes widening, cigarette nearly falling from in-between his fingers.

But then Sans started snickering…then chuckling…before full out laughing, being followed along with Red and Orange. Even Green and Gaster were attempting to hide their chuckles behind their hands while Blue and Papyrus were screaming about how you were already tainted by puns.

“UNACCEPTABLE! DESPICABLE! DISGUSTING!” Black shouted, joining in, pounding his fists on the table in annoyance.

“holy crap, g, she sure showed you,” Sans wiped away nonexistent tears from his eyes. “you’ve got some spunk, kid. i like that, a nice breath of fresh air.” He pointed his boney fingers at you.

“i’ve been played,” G shrugged, leaning back in his chair and chuckling deeply.

You truly laughed for the first time in what felt like years.

“[AH…____,]” Gaster started nervously in-between chuckles.

“Oh, right!” you stood up from your seat. Gaster had requested lunch. “I hope we will all get along everyone.” You said, turning around from the table before pausing. Where was the kitchen, even?

“Door to your left,” Green supplied. 

You shot him a quick thank you before opening the door and walking through it. Before you were in total silence with yourself, you thought you heard Gaster say – in a hushed tone,

“[NOW GENTLEMEN…ABOUT THE MACHINE…]” before the door shut behind you, cutting you off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know some character's didn't talk much this chapter, and I know it's kind of short...
> 
> but they can't all start off trusting you immediately, can they? c;
> 
> Once again, thank you so much for all your comments, hits, kudos, for everything! It gets my creative juices flowing and lets me know you guys really enjoy this story! <3 Ya'll are the best.
> 
> (let me know if you see any mistakes as well, this was kind of hastily edited to get this out to you, thanks!)
> 
> ((-SWEATS- I realized I messed up with G's way of talking, fixed it, oops, along with a few other errors I found. Hope it flows a bit more smoothly now.))


	5. Lessons in Cooking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy cannoli my dudes
> 
> over 200 kudos, 29 bookmarks and over 1700 hits? you guys are gonna make me cry.

The next few weeks had passed in a blur. You had been living with the skeleton family just shy of a month. You had done everything you had to do in order to turn away from your old life. You had gotten your name taken off of the lease your ex-boyfriend and you had shared, you had quit your old job – much to the dismay of your boss and your coworkers who begged you to stay…and if it wasn’t for G who had accompanied you, you would’ve been guilt tripped into staying…you had a hard time saying no – and you had told yourself that you had gotten used to living with these monsters.

But that was a bold faced lie.

While some of the skeletons seemed to look alike…they all acted very differently.

Papyrus…well he was just Papyrus. He would call you in and ask you to help him play with his action figures. “IT IS FOR PRACTICING BATTLE SCENARIOS” he would justify, keeping you for hours and demanding you make different and wacky voices for each and every one. He had also asked to help you when you were cooking dinner one night, and foolish and naïve you, you had agreed – ecstatic to have the help. You don’t know how he did it…but the ravioli dish you were planning on making somehow got turned into a glob of under cooked, glittery spaghetti. You mustered up the courage to eat a forkful, before promptly gagging. You couldn’t stand the hurt look on his face – or the murderous one on Sans’ who was also in the room – so you told him the flavor was so grand and different, your taste buds couldn’t handle it, having given him a shaky smile.

You swear you’d never seen someone blush orange before. It was kind of cute.

But you also told him that glitter did not belong in spaghetti and offered to help him next time and give him pointers. He beamed at the offer.

Sans, on the other hand, was quite unlike his brother. He didn’t eat much besides ketchup. The first time you had seen him chug an entire bottle of the stuff, you had to stop yourself from staring, the smug look on his face was too much. And when you attempted to get him to eat anything he made up a pun about it going right through him or he wanted to keep his figure.

“But you don’t have a figure, Sans…” you had said one day, trying to get him to eat one of the BLT sandwiches you had made for everyone. You added extra tomato to his.

Sans had shot you a wink and two finger-guns before replying, “exactly,” before chugging down another bottle of ketchup.

You made sure to have at least five bottles of the tomato based condiment in the fridge. You liked to think he appreciated the effort.

You had later gone back to the table to see his plate empty, only crumbs and bits of juice from the extra tomatoes left. You let out a happy little huff, smiling to yourself as you gathered up the dish and brought it to the kitchen to wash.

Blue – or Blueberry, you called him both – was almost like Papyrus in the way he acted. He would jump around you excitedly, demanded you to see his puzzles that he crafted – which made it even harder to get around the house – and always tried to get you to do stuff with him. Whenever you would ask him what he would like for dinner, he would get literal stars in his eyes and he was exclaim the same thing, each and every night like clockwork, “TACOS!” You told him that all of you couldn’t have tacos each night, and he began to tear up, asking why in a breaking voice. You had fumbled for words before saying that tacos are such a superior food that they should only be enjoyed once in a while and that seemed to perk him right back up.

Orange – oh boy – Orange was just as bad as Sans when it came to drinking condiments, except his was with honey. He would down at least three of the jars in one day, causing you to run to the store more often than you would like, buying more to keep the hoodie wearing skeleton satiated. You wondered how the skeleton wasn’t on a constant sugar high…but he seemed so tired all the time. 

He was a mystery to you though. He never talked much about himself, though you noticed the bags under his eye sockets one day and asked him about it. He seemed to be surprised you noticed, smiling gently and placing a skeletal hand on your head, rubbing it and messing up your hair, only stopping when you gave him an annoyed whine. He told you not to worry about it, that everything was fine…

But you knew it wasn’t.

The day you had spent with Red seemed to disappear from his mind. He had a strange affinity for mustard, and would drink the stuff like he was dying of thirst. He liked to tease you here and there and demand outrageous things from you. Although he still didn’t go back to calling you girly, which you were happy about. To be honest, you hated that nickname, and even though you weren’t quite fond of him calling you kid – even though Sans did it too, it seemed more natural coming from him – it was better than the other. You noticed that he seemed to revert back from that skeleton that had once protected you from your annoying coworker, now reminding you of the skeleton that had walked through your doorway the time Gaster offered for you to live here, scowling whenever you walked past, not wanting to look at you.

Though you suppose that was in part to his brother, Black.

The two seemed to be inseparable – well all the brothers were really. Black constantly put down Red whenever he got the chance to, and Red simply took it. You had wanted to go and intervene a few times, but the way Black shouted at the shorter skeleton reminded you way too much of someone…of certain events that most of the time you had shied away. But in reality, the two brought out the worst in each other. Because of Black, you weren’t sure you could approach Red and be treated the same way you had been, and there was no way in hell you were ever approaching Black. Ever.

It almost made you sad.

G on the other hand…was an enigma. The smoking skeleton – you got him and Orange to stop smoking indoors at least – seemed dead set on showing off parts of his skeletal body that you were sure should be kept away from prying eyes. The leather jacket he always wore was always unzipped, and only on one occasion had you seen him wear anything underneath, shielding his ribs and spine. The same could be said about the pants he wore. They always rode low on his hips and showed off the tops of his hip bones. He had caught you staring one time and called you out on it – thankfully the two of you were alone – and had enjoyed watching you stutter and stammer, trying to recollect your thoughts.

“i’m just teasing you, kitten,” he smirked, enjoying watching you huff angrily and escape back into the kitchen where you had been preparing dinner before getting caught up in whatever conversation you two were having. 

To your surprise…even though you had mentioned it before…you didn’t really mind the nickname he had given you.

Green was also quite the enigma. He would accidentally sneak up behind you to ask you a question or request your services, causing you to shriek in terror more than you would have liked. For how large he was, he moved super quietly. He would always profusely apologize though, asking if you were okay. You were always so surprised at how kind he was, how he would always be looking after your wellbeing, always making sure you were getting enough to eat and enough rest…and how exceedingly better at cooking he was than you. Both of the brothers with scars on their faces were really good at cooking, to be honest, and you had been shown that first hand when you had to ask for help with a rather complicated recipe, both of them the only ones within earshot.

You were surprised when the two of them literally took over the kitchen – accidentally pushing you out of the picture as they expertly grilled and baked, adding in random ingredients that weren’t in the recipe, but would undoubtedly make the dish pop. You were the first to try it, and when the food popped into your mouth, you were sure there were literal stars in your own eyes.

“It’s delicious!” you had beamed up at them, quickly grabbing another bite.

Their collective blushes of green and yellow made you giggle at them.

The last one was Gaster. And if you had a hard time figuring out what G and Green were all about…Gaster was even harder. The poor skeleton wasn’t even around the house during the waking hours, only showing up while you were preparing dinner – it sort of became your thing to prepare the meals unless told otherwise after a while –, and asking if you had completed the task he had asked you to do. Every time you had nodded your affirmation and Gaster would affectionately pat your head, giving you a kind smile and a gentle, “[GOOD JOB,]” before going to do whatever he needed to do – only reappearing once more when dinner was ready. You wondered if he only ate one meal a day since you never saw him during the day when you were preparing breakfast and lunch for the others…and that wasn’t really healthy.

Sans had told you that monsters were made up of magic, and while they might not need to eat as much or as often as humans, they still needed to eat something to keep their magic flowing.

Maybe you should start bringing him some coffee at least?

You sighed as you finished the tasks you were told to do for that day – cleaning the downstairs foyer and laundry – walking to the laundry room and pulling out the laundry, folding it and setting aside each piece of laundry that belonged to each individual skeleton.

You gathered them up and walked outside of the laundry room, noticing that while you were busy with your tasks and menial shores, the evening sky had turned to night, the slight amount moonlight casting an eerie glow on the trees and shrubbery. You let your thoughts wander as you walked up to each individual skeleton’s rooms, dropping off their clean laundry on their beds before leaving to put the laundry basket back in its home.

Exactly how long would you be welcome here in this home? Surely this wasn’t permanent. 

A few of the skeletons were warming up to you, sure, Papyrus and Blue considered you as their best friend, but it was the others that made you feel rather…unwelcome. Green and G were friendly whenever they were around, but they seemed to disappear often enough, just like Gaster, and sometimes you didn’t see them either. The same could be said for Sans and Orange, both of whom you still hadn’t had a proper conversation with. They always seemed on edge whenever you were around, but you couldn’t blame them.

Monsters and humans didn’t mix well, like oil and water.

Red would sometimes disappear as well, but whenever Black called his name, he would appear and do whatever Black wanted him to do. That is…unless he made you do what Black wanted him to do.  
You paused as you placed the laundry basket down, frowning.

Were you really welcome here? Should Gaster have really invited you to stay?

You walked out of the laundry room, machines quiet, the whole house seemed quiet actually. For having so many tenants…the house was always…quiet.

“HUMAN!” or at least it was quiet.

“Papyrus?” you turned around as Papyrus came up to you.

“HUMAN! IS IT TIME TO PARTAKE IN THE MAKING OF DINNER? I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THAT COOKING LESSONS NOW! IF THAT IS…POSSIBLE.” He twiddled his fingers nervously, not meeting your eyes.

You gave him a kind smile, nodding. “Of course, and I’ve told you this before, Papyrus. You don’t have to call me human. You can call me ____.” You turned and made your way towards the kitchen.

“OH GOODIE!” you could hear him skip a few steps before falling in step behind you, the two of you reaching the kitchen.

“What would you like to make?” it was really a stupid question because you knew the answer was going to be…

“SPAGHETTI!” Papyrus exclaimed, making you laugh.

“Papyrus, we had spaghetti last week,” he looked crestfallen. “Oh but how about we…make another version of pasta?” he perked up as you rummaged around in the cupboards and refrigerator. “Yeah, with…chicken and lemon and spinach!” you pulled out the ingredients, large smile on your face.

“EXCELLENT IDEA HUMAN! THE ONLY THING THAT CAN MAKE SPAGHETTI BETTER IS MORE VEGETABLES!”

You let out a laugh as you got to work, Papyrus helping you.

Though…you had to stop and correct him quite a few times.

“Papyrus, you need to add water to the pot before you boil the angel hair.”

“LIKE THIS?”

“Papyrus that’s too much it’s going to overflow!”

“I CUT THE LEMONS, HUMAN!”

“Papyrus, you don’t have to call me hum…Papyrus, how did you cut these lemons?”

“WITH MY FISTS!”

“Papyrus you have to use a knife to cut them.”

“WE NEVER USE A KNIFE WHEN MAKING THE SAUCE FOR SPAGHETTI!”

“I’ll go get more lemons…”

“HUMAN! I COOKED THE CHICKEN!”

“Hey, awesome job Papyrus! It looks great! I’ll cut it up and then we can add it to the pan.”

“HUMAN WHY ARE THE GREEN LEAFY BITS GETTING SMALLER WHEN WE COOK THEM?”

“That’s what spinach does when you cook it.”

“IT’S VERY ENTERTAINING TO WATCH!”

It was nearing the time for everyone to start gathering for dinner when the two of you finished, looking at the huge mound of lemon butter chicken pasta in front of you. You breathed in the scent of the dish, sighing out happily. It smelled divine…if only a little burnt.

Job well done if you do say so.

“WOWIE! THIS LOOKS DELICIOUS!”

“It sure does. I couldn’t have done it any better myself. Thanks for all the help, Papyrus.” You shot him a smile, one that he returned. “I hope everyone else will enjoy it!”

“UNDOUBTEDLY!”

You heard voices coming from the table area, and you nodded to Papyrus, who grabbed up the large plate of pasta, you following after him with the loaves of garlic bread you had whipped up when he had been cooking the chicken. Both of you brought out the food, Papyrus setting down the plate with a clatter while you set down the plate that held the garlic bread gently. It seemed that everyone was seated down at the table, awaiting dinner. Whether it was the smell of the food that lured them or their own rumbling bellies, you wouldn’t know, but it made you happy to see them all gathered like this.

Strange, Gaster was missing.

“i didn’t know paps was helping you make dinner…” Sans sounded nervous, looking at the food warily when Papyrus and you had come out of the kitchen together.

“THE HUMAN OFFERED COOKING LESSONS!” Papyrus was beaming.

“you certainly need them,” Red chuckled, flinching slightly when he noticed the glare that Sans was giving him.

“WHAT? PAPYRUS GOT COOKING LESSONS WITH ____? I WANT COOKING LESSONS WITH ____!” Blue huffed, crossing his arms.

You remember Orange saying that Blue’s cooking skill was just about as good as Papyrus’.

Which meant it wasn’t very good.

“Tell you what, Blue,” you started dishing out the pasta, putting a single piece of garlic bread on each plate, sliding one over to the excitable skeleton. “Tomorrow, we can make dinner together, and I can give you a lesson then, okay?” Blue’s smile grew so wide you were afraid his skull was going to crack open.

“I DO NOT NEED COOKING LESSONS!” Black boasted, looking away from the plate that was placed in front of him in utter distaste. “MY COOKING IS FAR SUPERIOR TO ANYTHING YOU COULD CREATE!"

“if you count a copious amount of chili powder in that mound of soggy noodles that you call lasagna cooking,” G grinned and spun his fork around the pasta, spearing a piece of chicken and popping it into his mouth, ignoring the glare he got from Black. Seems he didn’t seem to mind that Papyrus helped you out in this culinary endeavor. “not bad, kitten. good job papyrus.”

“THANK YOU G!” Papyrus had stars in his eyes, blinking as you handed him a plate as well.

“You helped make it, only fair that the chef gets to eat his own creation,” you smiled as he seemed to bounce, rushing to his spot beside Sans, immediately shoveling the pasta into his mouth.

“HUMAN! IT TASTES AS GOOD AS IT LOOKS!”

“I would sure hope so, Papyrus,” you laughed, serving the last of the table.

“Thank you, ____,” Green nodded to you, picking up a fork and swirling around the pasta.

Orange actually seemed to want to eat when you placed the plate down in front of him, the hoodie wearing skeleton giving you a smile and a wink as he picked up his fork and managed to only catch one single noodle on the utensil, placing one end of the noodle in his mouth and slurping the rest into his mouth. What a lazybones.

You handed a plate to Red as well, who grunted in response, turning away from you, not wanting to meet your eyes. Huh, that’s…swell. You sighed as you made up one more plate for Gaster, leaving you with a rather small portion. That was alright though. “Hey, where’s Doctor Gaster?” you asked.

“THE DOCTOR? HE IS PROBABLY STILL IN THE LA – MMPH!” Blue was about to…or trying to answer you before Orange shoved more noodles in his mouth, silencing him while chuckling nervously.

Because that’s totally normal.

“i’m sure he’ll be along shortly…” Orange answered a tad too quickly, shooting Blue an apologetic look as the shorter skeleton shot a mean look at him (well as mean of a look as Blue could give).

“It’s not good for him to miss dinner…” you picked up the plate of cooling noodles, looking at the door leading out of the dining room, walking towards it. “I’ll just go find him.”

“kid, that really isn’t the best idea,” Sans said, voice lowering an octave, a warning in his tone. Even he had eaten some of the pasta.

You didn’t seem to get the message, but you paused anyway. “But his food.”

“he’ll be here soon,” Orange pressed, setting his fork down.

You were closer to the doorway now. “It won’t taste very good if it’s cold though…”

“just don’t kid,” Red growled.

“kitten…” Even G spoke up against you finding Gaster. What was up with them?

You puffed out your cheeks and turned around your back facing them. You could feel the tension in the room rise considerably when you did that, the air thick as you were about to walk through the doorway.

“[____?]” Gaster peered down at you, suddenly appearing right in front of you. You yelped, plate slipping from your grasp. You saw in a flash Gaster’s left eye – the one that wasn’t half lidded – glow purple and you cringed, eyes closing and waiting for the telltale _crash_ of the plate hitting the ground, but it never happened. You opened your eyes to see Gaster’s eye glowing purple, the plate and the pasta encased in a crackling purple magic. He brought the plate up to his hand, resting it in the palm, unharmed and all in one piece, noodles, lemons, spinach and chicken all undisturbed.

Magic was wonderful.

“[THIS LOOKS DELICIOUS, ____.]” Gaster gave you a kind smile, the purple magic fading away.

“Th-thank you. Papyrus helped me.”

“[DID HE NOW?]” Gaster looked over at Papyrus who waved, smile still on his face. “[IT LOOKS WONDERFUL, PAPYRUS. AND NOT VERY…GLITTERY FOR ONCE.]”

“THE HUMAN SAID THAT GLITTER DOES NOT BELONG IN PASTA!” Papyrus replied.

“[SHAME,]” Gaster didn’t sound disappointed in the slightest as he shot you a wink, settling down in his seat. “[WILL YOU BE JOINING US FOR DINNER, ____?]” he motioned the seat next to his.

“Oh, well I…” you looked at the skeletons who had spoken up against you going to find Gaster. There seemed to be no evidence of the tension on their faces, all of them just eating quietly. “I suppose…”

“[WONDERFUL,]” Gaster seemed to brighten as you sat down beside him, dishing out the rest of the pasta onto your own plate, beginning to eat the slightly cool pasta.

\---

After dinner was completed and all the dishes were gathered and in the process of being washed, you suddenly felt like you weren’t alone in the kitchen anymore, pausing in your chore and looking over your shoulder.

“Sans?”

“heya kiddo,” Sans was leaning against the closed door that lead into the dining room from the kitchen. His smile looked the tiniest bit strained.

“Is there something I could help you with?”

“actually…yeah.” Sans rubbed the back of his head, closing his eye sockets. You still wondered how that worked. “look, i appreciate what you’ve been doing for us. how you are taking care of us even though it seems like you’re in a pretty tight spot right now. look, kid, i get it, i’ve been there before, i’ve seen it,” he shrugged as you narrowed his eyes, unsure of where he was going with this. “i also appreciate the fact that you are including paps in all of your little shenanigans. he could really benefit from some cooking lessons. i could tell he was the one to cook the chicken because it was slightly over cooked, my little bro’s still has a lot of learning to do…” he trailed off.

“but,” you didn’t really like that tone of voice, and when he opened his eyes again you gasped. His eyes were empty. Black. Full of darkness. It terrified you. He terrified you. “there are secrets that we would like to keep secret, do you understand, kiddo? there are places in this house that you cannot touch. will not touch. do you understand?”

You nodded slowly.

“no, i don’t think you heard me… d o y o u u n d e r s t a n d?” Sans’ voice dropped even lower.

“Y-Yes…I-I understand…” you squeaked out.

“good,” Sans blinked once and his eye lights were back. He was looking as laid back as ever. “glad we could have this talk. dinner was really good by the way.” He waved to you as he left.

You waited until you didn’t hear him anymore before sliding to the floor, allowing yourself a few moments to calm down and compose yourself before you stood up again and finished the dishes, setting them to dry before walking to your room.

You closed the door and contemplated for a minute before turning the lock, changing into your pajamas and setting your alarm for earlier than you usually would wake up before climbing into bed, moonlight peeking in from the window above you.

You closed your eyes to try and sleep, but all you saw was darkness. Darker than dark.

Dark, darker, yet darker.

\--

“she wanted to look for you,” Sans looked at Gaster out of the corner of his eye as he sat in the lab alongside the taller, scarred skeleton, both of them looking exhausted.

The doctor said nothing, only mindlessly scanning through the readings the computer was giving him on the machine.

“she seemed pretty upset that you hadn’t come in for dinner.”

More silence.

“why were you so late? since she came here, weeks ago, you never missed a single meal.”

A long pause. “[THERE WAS…A READING. A VERY DISTURBING ONE.]”

“no fucking way,” Sans rolled his chair closer to the monitor as Gaster highlighted it, pointing it out with the tip of a pen.

“[THE UNIVERSE THAT WE KNOW AS HOME…IS SLOWLY COLLAPSING.]”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /THROWS PLOT IN YOUR FACE/
> 
> tried to make this chapter just a little bit longer.
> 
> work has been crazy busy. And by crazy busy I mean that I work at an animal shelter and we are full to the brim with cats, kittens, dogs and puppies. This is your friendly reminder to adopt from your local animal shelter because they might be full to bursting like the animal shelter I work at is right now! It's a busy time of the year for us!
> 
> Once again let me know if you see any errors. Love you guys so so much. <3


	6. Out of My World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uhh...I really, really hope I'm writing everyone alright.

“Monster town?” you repeated, looking up from the pot of soup you were making. Orange had requested something other than some type of pasta dish or taco creation, so you were making homemade potato soup. The skeleton who had requested the dish was settled on one of the stools that provided seating for the island of the kitchen, going in and out of consciousness while he watched you work before Gaster came in, now lazily watching the two of you converse.

“[YES. IT WAS THE SECOND EVER ESTABLISHED TOWN EVER CREATED BY MONSTERS WHEN THE BARRIER WAS DESTROYED. THERE ARE A FEW ITEMS I REQUIRE THERE THAT YOU CANNOT PURCHASE AT ANY HUMAN STORE.]” Gaster fiddled with his hands. It was one of the rare times that he was out before dinner. Though you wondered if you had something to do with it as you had set your alarm early last night, waking up before everyone else to make a fresh pot of coffee – with some difficulty, the coffee maker was hidden away, as well as the small amount coffee grounds they had hidden away in the kitchen – and set the cup on a saucer outside of your door along with packets of creamer and sugar, waiting for Gaster to come up to your door to write down what you needed to do for the day.

You had waited about an hour before you heard the sound of liquid being sipped and a soft sigh escaping someone’s mouth. You waited a few more minutes before you opened your door again, seeing that Gaster had put a little smiley face – just like him, with the droopy eye and everything – on the white board, below it having scrawled out “SHOPPING”. You noticed that all of the sugar packets you had put with the coffee had been used.

“Where is the town?”

“[ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, A FEW HOURS AWAY. I APOLOGIZE FOR ASKING YOU TO DO THIS, NORMALLY I WOULD GO MYSELF…I AM JUST SO BUSY.]”

“It’s no problem, Doctor, I’m happy to do this for you,” you gave him a smile that he gratefully returned.

“[I WILL NOT FORCE YOU TO GO ALONE HOWEVER. IT IS EASY TO GET LOST ON THE ROAD, SO I WILL ENTRUST YOU TO SANS AND…____?]” Gaster paused, looking at you with a concerned expression. You had tensed up when he had mentioned that you were going to go with Sans, remembering the unspoken threat he had said to you after dinner. You had been avoiding him since then, trying your hardest to not be in the same room as he was, and if he ever meandered in, you would make up a quick excuse and quickly scurry out of there.

He had noticed not too long after you had started avoiding him, and attempted to avoid you as well, but you noticed that his seemingly permanent smile was more strained on his face whenever you did see him.

“[IS THERE SOMEONE ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO ACCOMPANY YOU?]” Gaster asked. “[THE ROAD TO THE MONSTER TOWN IS CONFUSING. YOU COULD GET LOST. I DO NOT FEEL WELL ENOUGH JUST GIVING YOU DIRECTIONS AND SENDING YOU ON YOUR WAY ALONE.]”

“Just…anyone besides Sans…please.”

Gaster thought for a moment, placing one of his hands to his chin before seeming to reach a conclusion. “[I BELIEVE I HAVE THE ANSWER. WHAT ABOUT G AND GREEN? THEY KNOW THE AREA QUITE WELL.]” You looked up at Gaster, visibly relieved, nodding. “[THEN IT IS SETTLED, I WILL GO FETCH THEM AND TELL THEM TO WAIT IN THE FOYER WHILE YOU GET READY.]”

“But, Doctor, the soup,” you peered at the bubbling liquid that still had a few more minutes to cook before it was ready.

“[NOT TO WORRY, MY DEAR. ORANGE IS AN ADEQUATE COOK AND CAN WATCH THE SOUP UNTIL IT IS FINISHED.]” Gaster looked over to the still drowsy skeleton.

“wait, i’m going to do what now?” Orange looked up, waking up at hearing his name.

“Alright…” you stepped away from the stove and handed the spoon you had been using to stir the soup to Orange. “It only needs a few more minutes to cook, Orange. I hope you enjoy it, I made it especially for you.” You gave him a warm smile.

Orange’s cheeks dusted a light orange slightly as he took the spoon from you, nodding. “yeah, sure…a few minutes. no problem. have fun.” He watched as you left the room after being handed the list of items Gaster needed and the money required to buy the items. He turned back to Gaster with a suspicious look in his eyes. “are you just trying to get her out of the house?”

Gaster put his hands behind his back, standing up straighter. “[PARTLY. I ALSO DO REQUIRE THE ITEMS THAT SHE WILL BE PURCHASING FOR ME.]” He looked down at Orange. “[SINCE IT SEEMS SANS IS FREE NOW, I REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE AND HIS IN THE LAB. RED SHOULD ALREADY BE DOWN THERE KEEPING AN EYE ON THINGS. I BELIEVE WE MAY HAVE DISCOVERED HOW TO OPEN A PORTAL.]”

“step in the right direction…” Orange played with the spoon absentmindedly, not seeming thrilled at the news. He looked up at the taller skeleton, then to the pot of soup, needing to be stirred. “should we eat first?” He stood up, walking towards the pot and stirring the soup. It smelled divine.

“[IT WOULD BE A SHAME FOR IT TO GO TO WASTE. OF COURSE.]”

\--

You got ready quickly, changing into something more appropriate to go outside in before walking to the foyer. You saw that Green and G were already waiting for you, so you jogged the rest of the way over, the jingling of the money that Gaster gave you catching their attention and causing them to look over at you.

“hey there kitten,” G shot you a smirk.

“Good afternoon, ____,” Green smiled kindly at you.

“Hello, Green, hello, G.” You smiled to each of them in return, pulling out the list that Gaster had given you, looking at the items. Most of them were just common grocery items – you were starting to run low on necessities like milk and juice, and you realized that now that Gaster had a taste of coffee, he was asking for the stuff by name – while some of them were quite strange and alien to you. What in the world was a Sea Tea? You were wondering if they were items that only monsters knew about. “Gaster said that the monster town was a few hours away, so we should get going.” You looked up from the list and made your way to the door, pushing it open to the outside.

The crisp air that greeted you let you know that autumn was soon approaching. It wasn’t as warm as it used to be anymore and you breathed in the crisp air deeply as you felt your two companions follow you, hearing the door being shut behind you.

“if you’re so worried about us wasting time, kitten…” G started, walking up closer to you. “shouldn’t we use a faster mode of transportation?” He smirked.

“Brother, surely you aren’t thinking of…” Green started before he was answered by G’s knowing grin. You looked between the two of them, confused. “Brother, no.”

“brother yes,” G replied.

“What is G doing?” you asked before feeling a hand slip around your waist, pulling you close to the yellow eyed-skeleton, face inches away from his. 

You froze. Too close. Way too close.

“this,” G whispered before you felt the crackle of magic in the air, watching as yellow-gold flames licked the sides of his face. You felt the familiar and uncomfortable feeling of weightlessness and you clung to G’s leather jacket, pressing yourself to his body, your eyes squeezing shut. You could hear G laughing somewhere. It sounded so close, but so far away at the same time. It confused you. You didn’t like it.

Yet just like with Red, the feeling of weightlessness quickly ended and you felt ground beneath you once more. As soon as you did, you pulled away from G, hand to your chest, attempting to catch your breath. Green appeared not too long after you and G, literally popping into view with a blip. Could all the skeletons teleport?

“you okay there, kitten?” G asked, looking actually genuinely concerned, frown set on his face. Perhaps he was regretting magically teleporting you from one spot to another that was supposed to be hours away but only took you a few seconds. If you weren’t used to it, you would have to catch your breath as well.

Well it was technically his fault you were this breathless in the first place. But you took a few deep breaths and calmed yourself down.

“I’m purr-fectly fine,” you managed to say, causing his smile to return to his face and his hand to pat your head, messing up your hair.

“Shall we get going then?” Green asked, leading the way towards the monster town.

You nodded enthusiastically, looking back behind you in annoyance as you smelt the smell of cigarette ash as G lit up a cigarette, putting it to his teeth, smug look on his face as he stared at you. Sometimes you wondered if he smoked around you just to irk you.

The rest of the walk to the monster town was quiet. The three of you just following a well-traveled gravel road. The road on both sides was blanketed by trees, the forest so thick you couldn’t see very far into it but sunlight occasionally broke through the thick layer of leaves, coating the forest floor in a beautiful green light. It made you happy to see nature this way. So undisturbed and natural.

The forest began to thin, and you recognized that the sound of birds and other animals was being replaced by the sounds of voices. You couldn’t quite understand what they were saying, but you could discern them as being separate from the forest.

“Nearly there,” Green commented, and just as he said that, the forest opened up to a perfect clearing. The monster town rested in the clearing, the entryway marked by a simple, yet perfectly crafted wooden archway that simply said “FOREST TOWN”.

You looked at it in confusion. It was so…simple.

“yeah…monsters aren’t really good at naming things,” G chuckled, walking forward past the archway, taking a long, deep drag on his cigarette, eyelights flickering at you as the smoke curled around him before disappearing into the air.

“Humans don’t really have a knack for it either,” you mumbled, walking past the archway as well.

It was like a floodgate was opened. All around you were monsters. They were having pleasant conversations, laughing, eating food that looked rather delicious – you realized that while you had made the soup for Orange…you actually hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, which was awhile ago –, and just basically acting like normal…people. You even noticed that among the sudden sea of monsters, there were even some humans as well. You couldn’t help but notice that these humans seemed to stick close to certain monsters. You wondered if they were couples? You smiled at the thought.

None of the monsters seemed to give you a second glance either. You didn’t know if strange humans regularly came to the town, or if they were used to their permanent human residents and based all strange humans off of them, but they would see you and wave in a friendly gesture before going about their business. Or maybe it was because you had two monsters leading you around? They didn’t think you were a threat that way.

“hey, kitten,” G called you suddenly and you jogged over. The three of you had kind of gotten separated, but you could still see Green out of the corner of your eye. He was looking at freshly picked plums. “doc said he needed this?” he asked, pointing to a weird little contraption that was sitting on the shelf of a market stall. The contraption looked like it was something mechanical. You reach out, grabbing it and examining it.

“What does it do…?” It just looked like a weird…rod, covered in a spring.

G shrugged as well. “dunno…hey, can we get this?” he asked the vendor, who turned around, seeming slightly surprised that you wanted that piece of junk. He had literally called it junk. Why did Gaster want this again? “heh heh…hey,” he looked down at you as you looked up, handing the vendor the gold as he bagged up the spring-rod-thing. “looks like that thing will really put a…” he paused.

“Oh…oh my god G,” you started to giggle.

“ _spring_ in your step,” G winked. You laughed. The vendor groaned and shooed the two of you away as you scanned the other market stalls, Green joining you not long after.

“Find something?” he asked. He had a bag of his own. You wondered if he got the plums.

Nodding, you showed him the weird contraption. “It was something Gaster wanted. There are a few other things he asked for, besides just basic groceries.”

“Then we should get to it then, we are…goodness, how do you humans say it?” Green seemed to be lost in thought. “Burning the sun?”

You blinked at him. “Do you mean, burning daylight?”

“That’s it! We are burning daylight! Come now, ____, brother, there is much to be done and not a lot of time!” Green strutted off, easily seen through the crowd as he literally towered over them.

“he left without the list,” G commented, lazy smile on his face as he took another drag of his cigarette.

“Yep,” you giggled, following after the skyscraper of a skeleton.

You barely noticed that the smell of cigarette smoke didn’t bother you as much anymore.

\--

It didn’t take long for you to finish gathering up everything Gaster had requested you to buy. The bags you were carrying rather heavy and full to the brim with groceries and other objects that seemed to be important to Gaster. G saw you struggling to carry all the bags and snickered at your troubles, but offered to take some of the load off. You agreed, and he took half of the heavy bags with no trouble at all. Green also saw that you were troubled, and took the rest of the bags, even though he had bags of his own to carry. You were suddenly left with no bags as the three of you continued deeper into the town.

A faint blue glow to your left caught your eye and you paused mid-stride, foot falling to the ground gently. Green and G walked past you before noticing you had stopped walking, pausing themselves a few paces ahead of you.

“come on, kitten. we’ve got everything we need we should be getting back.” G called. You knew he was right. The sun was starting to set with how long you had been searching the various market stalls for what Gaster had wanted. But this glowing blue object just caught your attention as you walked toward the stall.

Upon closer inspection you realized it was a flower. A glowing blue flower nestled inside of a brown ceramic pot. It was beautiful. You breathed out as you touched the luminescent leaves.

“Interested in that there echo flower, are ya?” an elderly voice asked. You looked up in surprise and saw that a rather elderly turtle monster was looking at you with interest behind the stall, polishing a magnifying glass that looked about as old as he was, yet well taken care of. You retracted your hand and nodded quickly. “It’s for sale, lass. Can’t get the bloody thing to speak. Don’t know what’s wrong with it.”

“Echo flower…?” you asked, confused.

“Yes, ____,” Green came up behind you suddenly, causing you to jump. He gave you an apologetic look while G just snickered from somewhere behind him. “Echo flowers repeat the last thing that they hear when you touch their petals. They were abundant throughout the Underground. Everyone used to speak their wishes into the flowers. I’ve never heard of one…not speaking though.” Green leaned in closer to the flower, his face being illuminated from the glow it was giving off.

“It’s beautiful…” you breathed out, touching the petals gently.

“ _It’s beautiful…_ ” The flower repeated your words, causing you to pull your hand away in surprise

“Wahahaha! Would you look at that, lass! You got the bloody flower to speak.” The turtle monster shot you a grin. “I’ve been meaning to get this thing off of my hands, so if you’ve got the gold, I can sell it to ya.”

You dug around for some money, but realized that you had spent everything that Gaster had given you…on what was actually needed. Not for frivolous purchases. “I don’t…”

Two gold pieces were suddenly placed on the counter of the stall, and the turtle monster slid the flower over to you. “All yours, lass.”

“G, you didn’t have to do that!” you puffed out your cheeks as you grasped the ceramic pot, holding the flower close.

“nah, i didn’t,” G shrugged. “but you seemed like you really wanted it so…” he scratched behind his head. “consider it an ‘i’m sorry for hitting you with a car’ present.”

You couldn’t help but laugh at that, the flower echoing your laughter as you waved goodbye to the turtle monster and continued on your way, this time towards the exit of the town. After checking your list, you had gathered everything that Gaster had asked of you, as well as gathered quite a few groceries to last you quite a while. The sky was now a dark blue, signaling that night was fast approaching. The air was crisper than before and you shivered slightly, holding the flowerpot closer to you so you wouldn’t drop it as you shivered.

“Oh dear…are you cold ____?” Green asked, concern lacing his voice. You shrugged. You could live the rest of the way, but the wind had started to pick up, easily making its way through your clothes and raising uncomfortable goosebumps on your skin. You blinked suddenly when you suddenly felt warmth encasing you, and you realized that Green had covered you in his large and rather long leather coat around your shoulders, sheltering you from the breeze. He kneeled down as he tucked it in various places so it wasn’t dragging on the ground as much, yet it still engulfed you. He met your eyes when he was finished, smiling kindly. He was only left in his signature turtleneck now. “Better?”

You nodded, meeting his gaze shyly as he stood back to his full height and walked beside you while G waited patiently for you two. The two of you caught up to him and were about to head back home when you heard numerous happy squeals and shouting coming from behind you. 

“Look!” you heard a voice say.

“The sky!” another shouted.

You looked up and saw the sky lighting up with several streaks of light, one right after the next. Your eyes widened. “A meteor shower…” you whispered. You had never seen many of these before. While in the human city, there had been too much light pollution for you to properly see a meteor shower, let alone the stars at night. Plus, whenever you had heard of a meteor shower that was scheduled to happen, you were either always working late, too busy helping customers to look up at the sky, or busy resting from the long hours of working just to make sure you and your ex-boyfriend didn’t lose the roof over your heads.

But the few times you saw them, they always took your breath away.

Oh, right! You had to make a wish!

You followed one particular star as it streaked across the sky and squeezed your eyes shut, whispering your wish to yourself. You thought about it long and hard, before you opened your eyes once again to the beautiful scene above you.

“you okay over there, kitten?” G asked. His eyes had drifted over to you before he looked back at the light show above him. “your face was kind of scrunched up.”

“I was making a wish,” you explained. “You guys wish upon these echo flowers…” you motioned to the blue flower still sitting silently against your chest. “But humans wish upon shooting stars.”

“I can see why humans would enjoy wishing upon these…” Green commented, his face aimed towards the sky, before looking back down at you. “It’s very beautiful…and brings a sense of peace.” His face softened as he gazed upon you, yet you didn’t seem to notice as you nodded enthusiastically.

“Shall we?” you asked.

Green handed the rest of the bags to G before offering you his hand. “Yes, let’s go home.” He smiled when you took his hand.

You didn’t seem to mind the weightlessness as much when Green was the one teleporting you.

\--

You and Green arrived at the front of the estate, and not a second later, G arrived with all of the bags. You laughed when he seemed to be struggling, taking some of them from him and walking inside. The two scarred brothers followed you and even helped you put away the groceries, G laughing at you when you couldn’t reach one of the cabinets to put away the copious amounts of coffee you had bought, but Green reached it with ease, patting you on the head and showing you where a step ladder was so you could reach it later. All the while the three of you were arguing what to have for dinner, deciding on stir fry. You would have to make sure that was okay with Blue. You had promised him cooking lessons.

Everything was put away in less than ten minutes. All that was left was the stuff that Gaster has requested you to buy. You looked at the bags still sitting on the kitchen island, next to the echo flower that still needed to be put away in your room.

“we can take those to the doc, not to worry, kitten,” G said, gathering up the bags in his arms.

“Let us know if you need any more -,”

_**KRA-BOOM!** _

The sound and the feeling of an explosion interrupted Green. You saw several emotions flash across G and Green’s faces, before they rushed out of the kitchen, G dropping the bags.

“Ah, wait!” you called after them, looking at the abandoned bags. You gritted your teeth.

You weren’t going to be left in the dark any longer.

You scooped up the bags, following the sound of footsteps and panicked voices throughout the house, before skidding to a stop, peering down a hallway.

“What’s going on?” Green sounded panicked.

“WE CAN’T GET THE DOOR OPEN!” Papyrus sounded just as panicked.

“who’s in there?” G stared at the metal door, contemplative look on his face.

“RE-RED…SANS…GASTER…AND...AND PA-PA…PAPY!” Blue started crying, large blue tears escaping from his eye sockets as he fruitlessly tried to wipe them away.

“QUIT YOUR SNIVELING, YOU BABY!” Black growled, attempting to open the door again. It just simply wouldn’t budge, just like Papyrus had said.

“What were they doing?” Green asked again, voice uncomfortably steady suddenly, holding Papyrus’ shoulders.

“THEY SAID…THEY SAID THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE DISCOVERED A WAY TO…” Papyrus paused, looking over Green’s shoulder. “____?!”

Green’s head whipped around, spotting you. His gaze was hard at first, but it softened when he saw that you were still wearing his coat. Many pairs of eyelights were on you suddenly and you froze under their gaze. Maybe you should have just let it be. 

Black growled, strutting up to you and grabbing the front of your shirt, pulling you close to his face, his sharp teeth baring threateningly. “YOU. SHOULDN’T. BE. HERE.”

“BLACK DON’T!” Papyrus called out.

“I heard…the explosion,” you offered the bags meekly. “I wanted to…to help.”

“Step back, Black,” Green warned. Black frowned at the scarred, tall skeleton before he obeyed, shoving you away roughly. “Do you really want to help?” Green asked. You could sense the urgency in his voice. You nodded. He hesitated for a second, reading your face, before he nodded in return. “I’m not sure what is going to be in there when we open that door…just be prepared.”

You swallowed thickly, but nodded again.

Green turned to G, who was standing in front of the door. “Ready, brother?”

G smirked, but you could tell it was strained. “ready as i’ll ever be.”

Both of the skeletons raised their hands, and you could feel their combined magic crackle in the air. Green’s magic surrounded the door, followed by G’s. Green and yellowish-gold. The two grunted as the door refused to budge, even with the outpouring of magic they were using, until suddenly a bright orange magic joined them, Papyrus’s eye flickering as his usual bright smile was set in a grimace. Light blue and blood-orange colored magic soon joined along, and you realized that all of the skeletons were joining in to try and get rid of the door.

You heard the door begin to give way, before it was completely torn off its hinges, G having to dive out of the way to avoid being hit by the heavy metal projectile.

Green had told you to be prepared for what you were about to see.

But there was in reality no way for you to be prepared.

“BROTHER!” Papyrus cried, vaulting into the room.

You stood there stunned. At the end of the room, was a large black portal with jagged edges. It looked…wrong somehow. The portal was attempting to suck anything and everything in, and it currently had Sans within its grasps, but Orange was barely holding onto one of his hands, trying to pull him back in. It looked to be a struggle though. You glanced down and you saw that Red was clinging to a table that was bolted to the ground, attempting to not be sucked into the portal. Another look around made you see that even Gaster was clinging to a piece of machinery, but his eye was lit up, like it was when he had stopped the plate of pasta from falling. He had sweat forming on the top of his skull, and you realized that with another look at the portal…he was trying to keep it open as you saw the empty opening shudder somewhat.

“paps! don’t!” Sans grunted, losing his grip on Orange’s hand slightly, slipping more into the black abyss with a frightened whimper. Papyrus obeyed, stopping just inside of the door, though the portal trying to suck him in caused him to grasp the doorway so he wouldn’t fall.

“sans!” Orange tightened his hold on Sans, attempting to keep Sans from falling into the black portal that had opened up in the middle of this strange looking room.

“PAPY!” Blue shouted, leaning against the doorframe, blue neckerchief fluttering violently against his neck.

“stay outside, blue!” Orange hissed through gritted teeth, planting one of his shoes against the wall and trying again to pull Sans back inside. The portal just fought against him, the wind just picked up and the portal closed slightly, even against Gaster’s magic. 

Gaster grunted in what seemed to be pain, the purple magic surrounding the portal stuttering before coming back full force again.

For some reason…while you saw the wind whipping around and affecting all of the skeletons…you didn’t feel any of it. You swallowed the lump in your throat and began taking small steps towards the portal.

“what the hell is she…?” Red voiced, but it sounded muffled to your ears, Black was beside him, frown on his face as he watched you as well, yet making sure his brother wouldn’t be the next victim to be hurtled into the jagged portal.

You just knew you had to get Sans out. That portal just wasn’t right. It wasn’t natural. Any place it led to just wouldn’t be a good time.

“____!” G called out to you, walking towards you before Green stopped him as the wind picked up, causing the scarred skeleton to brace himself.

You walked beside Orange, the hoodie wearing skeleton giving you a confused look. You smiled at him nervously in response, before leaning into the portal, reaching out your hand as far it could go. You could feel the jagged edges of the portal pressing against your skin, puncturing your side, seeming to just cut straight through your shirt and Green's leather jacket, and you gritted your teeth through the sharp pain as you reached further, trying to reach Sans. 

You faintly registered that you could suddenly feel the sharp wind that the portal was creating.

“Grab my hand,” you told Sans.

Sans looked at you in surprise at your demand, but didn’t waste any time in attempting to grab your hand, having a bit of difficulty in doing so, the portal pulling on him even more. You kept your eyes on his, not trusting the black abyss that was beyond him, but as soon as his boney hand pressed against yours, you looked over his shoulder.

You weren’t expecting a face to look back at you.

Your eyes widened and you tugged Sans sharply, barely registering the faint sound of a _crack_ over the wind the portal was creating. The combination of you and Orange was finally enough for Sans to be pulled out of the black abyss, the three of you landing on the floor.

Gaster’s magic closed the portal before anything else could happen, the skeleton huffing in exertion before looking over at the three of you with a fond smile, but he frowned when he looked at you. “[____....]”

“thank you thank you thank you –,” Sans thanked you profusely over and over again, before stopping short, shaking hands reaching towards your side. Why was he doing that?

“____...” Orange breathed out. “you’re…”

“bleeding…” G finished for him, rushing to your side.

You slowly touched your side, pulling your hand away and freezing when you saw a red liquid. You looked back up at Orange, Sans and G, their eyelights seeming to be stuck on your side. You followed their eyes and saw a swirling, jagged black piece of the portal pierced in your side. You hadn’t even felt it in there. But there it was. And before you even knew it, it started to sink deeper into your body. You cried out at the burning hot pain it caused, scratching your side to try and rip it out. Trying to do anything to stop the pain. G grabbed your arms and pulled you close to him, struggling against your writhing. He watched as the black, swirling piece of the portal disappeared into your body. He couldn’t think of anything he could do to help you. Even if he used his magic to stop the piece from embedding itself into you…it would just do it later when his magic ran out.

Your body went still against his. The piece of the portal had completely fused with you.

“____?” he asked. Your eyes had closed, your breathing was weak. You were unnaturally cold. Everything, everyone was too quiet. This was too much like the time Red had hit you with the car. You were barely breathing that time. You were too cold.

“is she…?” Red approached slowly.

“come on, kiddo…say something…” Sans shuffled up next to you. You had saved his life…even after…

The guilt he felt was unimaginable.

“doc, gaster, you have to do something,” Orange looked over at Gaster, who was still trying to recuperate, but had watched the whole thing.

“[I AM…NOT SURE WHAT I CAN DO. I AM NOT SURE WHAT EVEN HAPPENED.]” Gaster breathed out.

“THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING YOU CAN DO!” Papyrus exclaimed.

“YEAH! WE WERE…” Blue looked down at your limp form, tears welling up in his eyes again. Once the portal had been closed he had stepped inside the mess of a room. “WE WERE SUPPOSED TO COOK TOGETHER TONIGHT…”

Green simply held a hand over his mouth as he watched his brother hold you, shaking his head slightly.

Black was simply watching the scene with a scowl on his face, though it seemed softer than usual.

“[I SUPPOSE I CAN TRY AND RUN SOME TESTS…TAKE HER TO HER ROOM…I WILL KEEP A WATCHFUL EYE ON HER THERE.]” Gaster stood up straighter, watching as G lifted you up bridal style, a few drops of blood falling from your side onto the pristine white floor. He took great care as he walked you back to your room, most everybody else following suit, leaving only Green and Gaster in the messy room.

“Do you have any ideas?” Green asked suddenly, his eyes settled on the trail of blood droplets you had left when G had carried you out.

“[THE HUMAN JUST FORCEFULLY GOT A LARGE DOSE OF VOID MAGIC. THEIR SOUL IS TRYING TO FIGHT IT OFF. THAT IS THE ONLY HYPOTHESIS I CAN COME UP WITH AT THIS TIME. WE WILL NEED TO KEEP A WATCHFUL EYE ON HER FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS. IF SHE RECOVERS.]” Gaster told Green, frown on his face. “[AS FOR THE MACHINE…]” he looked at the damaged piece of equipment. “[I BELIEVE REPAIRS ARE IN ORDER. THE PORTAL MANAGED TO SUCK MOST OF MY NOTES INTO IT…IT WILL TAKE A BIT LONGER…BUT IT IS NOT BEGINNING FROM SQUARE ONE.]”

Green didn’t seem to mind that answer as he walked out of the room, he wanted to see how you were doing. He also didn’t know why it bothered him so much to know that you were in danger.

\--

Your eyes flew open and you gasped as you sat up straight. You weren’t in your room. You weren’t in that strange room that had that strange, scary looking portal in it. You were somewhere else entirely. It felt familiar and yet alien to you. It was dark, darker than dark. You wrapped your arms around yourself and shuddered, trying to stand. You noticed that you felt weightless in this empty space where there was literally nothing around.

You winced when you felt pain in your side, looking down and seeing that while you felt pain…you didn’t see anything. Strange.

You walked in the darkness. It seemed like ages. You didn’t feel like you were getting anywhere. Until you heard a voice.

“ _[DARK, DARKER, YET DARKER…THE DARKNESS KEEPS GROWING…]_ ”

You recognized the voice. It sounded so familiar…but at the same time, so strange. You couldn’t tell who it was. You starting running. Trying to get to the voice. You didn’t want to be alone in this black abyss. It was terrifying.

“ _[THE SHADOWS…CUTTING DEEPER…]_ ” the voice was so much closer now. Each step made the voice come so much closer to you until you skidded to a stop. There was suddenly someone in front of you. Their back was to you. They were huge. Their body was like an amorphous blob, constantly moving. It was even darker than the abyss you were currently engulfed in.

“H-Hello?” you called out to the creature in front of you.

It seemed to stop suddenly, it’s amorphous body pausing in it constant movement, slowly turning around to greet its new guest. “ _[VERY…VERY INTERESTING…]_ ”

You gasped. You clearly recognized the face you were looking at. “Doctor…Gaster…?” you breathed out.

The monster before you chuckled deeply, the sound reverberating all around you. “ _[I HAVE NOT GONE BY THAT NAME IN A LONG TIME, MY DEAR. IT IS NICE TO HEAR IT AGAIN. BUT I BELIEVE A MORE IMPORTANT QUESTION IS…HOW DID YOU GET HERE?]_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /THROWS EVEN MORE PLOT IN YOUR FACE/ Welcome to the world, void daddy.
> 
> do not worry friendos, I will slow down with the plot and we will be having special moments with the characters we have not had special moments yet. I was just super excited to write this chapter...you can tell by how long it is. but I'm also trying to make my chapters kind of long.
> 
> I seem to have the hardest time writing Black...curse you edgelord. /shakes fist/
> 
> Let me know if you see any mistakes or anything. I really wanted to get this out to you guys because I have some busy days ahead of me. And thank you guys so much for all the comments, hits, kudos and bookmarks. It means the world to me and keeps me writing! I love all of you! See you next time! <3


	7. Dreams Within Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uh...hi

G slammed his hands down onto the table that Gaster was currently resting on, causing the doctor to startle and grab the mug that threatened to fall to the floor. He couldn’t reach it in time and instead had to catch it with his magic, the purple hue around the ceramic gently guiding it back towards the table. “what do you mean she won’t wake up?” G growled out. Sans, Green and Orange stood behind him, watching warily.

“[I HATE REPEATING MYSELF…]” Gaster sighed, rubbing two boney fingers where the bridge of his nose would be. “[THE HUMAN’S SOUL HAS DISAPPEARED FROM HER BODY. THAT IS THE MAIN REASON AS TO WHY SHE IS UNCONCIOUS. SHE IS SIMPLY A HUSK. AN EMPTY SHELL. IF SHE STAYS LIKE THIS FOR MUCH LONGER…”] Gaster trailed off and looked over to where you were resting, or rather, your body, various machines connected to your body and monitoring your vital signs. They all seemed to be reading normal signs. Yet you weren’t awake.

“[THE CONSEQUENCES WOULD BE DEVASTATING.]”

“is there anything we can do to find her soul?” Orange asked.

“[NOT TO MY KNOWLEDGE.]” Gaster sighed out.

“how does a soul just up and vanish like that…?” Sans asked, walking over to your still body connected to so many wires. You almost looked like a doll. So lifeless. So devoid of the one thing that made you…you. The one thing that made you reach into the darkness and save him. He breathed out a heavy sigh, his eye lights resting on your calm face before he turned around.

“[I DO HAVE…A THEORY,]” Gaster spoke, his voice quiet. He seemed to be treading lightly around the other skeletons around him that seemed quite miffed that you were unconscious, and were blaming it all on him.

“You should tell us this theory of yours,” Green was leaning against the wall.

“[DUE TO THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF VOID MAGIC THAT THE HUMAN RECEIVED IN SUCH A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME…AND DUE TO THE PROPERTIES AND ABILITIES OF VOID MAGIC…ALL OF YOU UNDERSTAND, CORRECT?]” Gaster received collective nods from the other skeletons in the room. “[MY ONLY GUESS AS TO WHERE HER SOUL IS…IS SOMEWHERE UNREACHABLE. SOMEWHERE NONE OF US CAN GO TO…ONLY PASSING THROUGH THE MULTIPLE DOORWAYS IT HAS PROVIDED US…]” Gaster’s voice grew gentler and gentler as he watched realization draw upon the skeletons’ faces.

“you mean her soul…” Sans started, his whole body beginning to shake.

“is in the void?” Orange finished, almost choking out the words.

Gaster nodded solemnly, thumbing through the handle of the ceramic mug. “[ONLY SHE CAN FIND HER WAY BACK TO US…IF SHE CAN.]”

\--

“So if you aren’t Doctor Gaster…then who are you?” You asked the monster who was Gaster, and yet not Gaster. He was walking with you through the dark abyss as you had retold everything that had happened up to the point of you waking up in this strange, empty place. For some reason, you felt like you could trust him. He had the face of Gaster, and he even acted like the Doctor in his mannerisms. When he was walking…well what you guessed was walking, you couldn’t exactly see any legs… his hands, which also had holes in them – that weren’t attached to his amorphous body – stayed clasped behind his back, and he always stood up straight when he walked. Just like the Doctor Gaster you knew.

 _“[IT IS REALLY OF NO IMPORTANCE WHO I AM….OR WHO I RESEMBLE. BUT IF YOU MUST CALL ME BY A NAME…]”_ The monster paused to take a glance at you, studying you. He always seemed to be studying you. _“[WHY NOT LET US CONTINUE WITH THE COLOR GAME MOST OF YOUR OTHER ACQUAINTANCES ARE PLAYING AND CALL ME BY THE NAME…GRAY.]”_

You nodded, happy to put a name to the very familiar face. While the two of you continued to walk through the endless darkness, you couldn’t seem to get a read on him though, his face frozen in the same expression while you spoke. You continued retelling your tale, and though his face seemed to only show one emotion, he did seem a tad surprised when you mentioned the portal and how it was jagged in its looks, and how it was trying to suck all the skeletons in, except you.

That is until you told him of the piece of the portal got stabbed into your side. More surprise showed in his features, before understanding. If you were reading him correctly.

His eyes drifted over to you. _“[INTERESTING…]”_ He mumbled, bringing a hand that wasn’t quite attached to his mouth. You realized that when he spoke, his mouth never moved. He seemed to speak straight into your mind. It was strange. In return for you telling him about how you got here, he began to tell you who he was, and what this place was.

 _“[THIS IS THE VOID,]”_ he simply said, hands gesturing to the vast emptiness. _“[THIS IS WHERE ONE GOES TO BE FORGOTTEN, AND YET REMEMBER EVERYTHING. A PLANE OF NOTHINGNESS, AND YET WHERE YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING. WHERE YOU CAN GO NOWHERE, YET ACCESS ANYTHING. YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE, BUT IT IS NEVER ENOUGH.]”_ Gray breathed out a sigh, letting his hands fall down. _“[I HAVE BEEN HERE FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER. ALL I KNOW IS THE VOID. I FEEL OTHERS. COMING AND GOING. BUT THEY NEVER STAY. YOU, A HUMAN, ARE THE FIRST TO ACTUALLY STEP INTO THE DARKNESS…BUT YOU ARE NOT ACTUALLY HERE. JUST THE SAME AS HOW I AM DOCTOR GASTER, YET AT THE SAME TIME NOT.]”_

You blinked at him. “What…what do you mean?” you asked.

Gray paused, conflicted. _“[THE PORTAL THAT GASTER OPENED…WAS NEVER MEANT TO OPEN. NEITHER IN THE PAST, PRESENT, NOR IN THE FURURE. IT WAS AN ANOMALY. A MISTAKE. A PORTAL TO THE VOID THAT WAS SO UNNATURAL IT BECAME MONSTROUS. IT WANTED TO RIGHT ITSELF. BUT THE LONGER THAT GASTER KEPT IT OPEN…THE MORE DAMAGE THAT WAS DONE.]”_ He looked down to your side that had been punctured.

“Damage…?” you questioned. He nodded in return. “Why did…why did Gaster open the portal to begin with?”

 _“[THAT IS A VERY GOOD QUESTION.]”_ Gray placed a hand to his chin, humming thoughtfully. _“[VOID MAGIC IS SOME OF THE STRONGEST THAT THERE IS. THINK OF IT AS A SHADOW TO THE BASIC ELEMENTAL MAGIC. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THOSE ARE?]”_ he asked. You shook your head. _“[FIRE, WIND, WATER, EARTH. WHERE THERE IS LIGHT, THERE IS SHADOW. WHERE THERE IS CREATION, THERE MUST ALSO BE DESTRUCTION.]”_ He explained as he turned around, his back facing you as his hands clasped together behind him. _“[A LONG TIME AGO, WHEN HUMANS STILL HAD THE ABILITY TO WIELD MAGIC, THEY TRIED TO HARNESS THE DARK ABILITY OF THE VOID. IT CONSUMED THEM. DESTROYED THEM. DROVE THEM MAD. THEY FEARED US FOR OUR ABILITY TO CONTROL SHADOWS AND DARKNESS. SOMETHING THEY COULD NOT. PERHAPS THAT IS WHY THEY SEALED US UP. EVEN NOW, ONLY A HANDFUL OF MONSTERS CAN PERFORM VOID MAGIC.THE ABILITY BEGINNING TO BECOME LOST EVEN TO US. PERHAPS IT IS FOR THE BETTER…]”_

You stared at him as he spoke, learning more about humanity’s past than you ever would have hoped to learn in any history book. You also felt as if he diverted you away from your original question, yet you let it slide as you listened to him as he began to speak again.

 _“[HUMANS, FOR THE LONGEST TIME, HAVE LACKED THE ABILITY TO USE MAGIC. MANY MAY HAVE THE DORMANT ABILITY, BUT THEY DO NOT HAVE THE SKILLS TO AWAKEN THEIR POTENTIAL.]”_ He turned back around to look at you, seeming to peer straight through you, as if looking at something that was residing…inside of you. _“[I CANNOT SEE IT INSIDE OF YOU. YOU ARE NOT CAPABLE OF HARNESSING THE POWER OF MAGIC EITHER. THE POWER WAS LOST TO YOUR KIND AGES AGO. AFTER THE WAR, AFTER THE BARRIER WAS CREATED TO SEAL UP THE MONSTERS. AFTER THE THREAT WAS ERADICATED. THE ONLY REASON YOU ARE ABLE TO STAND HERE RIGHT NOW…]”_ One of those large, floating hands pointed towards your chest, your arms immediately wrapped around yourself, attempting to cover whatever he was pointing at. Though you weren’t sure what or why. 

_“[IS BECAUSE OF THAT PIECE OF THE VOID THAT PIERCED YOU. WITHOUT THAT LITTLE BIT OF VOID MAGIC ABSORBING ITSELF INTO YOUR SOUL, INVADING EVERY CREVICE IT COULD, YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN SCATTERED THROUGHOUT THE VOID. YOUR SOUL WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO KEEP ITSELF TOGETHER. YOU WOULD HAVE SUCCUMBED TO THE VOID. YOU WOULD HAVE DIED A THOUSAND TERRIBLE DEATHS, RELIVING THEM OVER AND OVER AGAIN. FOREVER. EVEN NOW…]”_ Gray came closer to you, towering over you, making you shrink, face falling at his explanation. _“[I CAN SEE YOUR SOUL SHUDDERING, STUTTERING, STRUGGLING. IT IS GROWING EVER DARKER. LOSING ITS BRIGHT COLOR. IT IS LOSING THE BATTLE AGAINST THE DARKNESS. EVERY SECOND YOU SPEND HERE, WITH AS MUCH MAGIC AS YOU ABSORBED, IN SUCH A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME…YOUR SOUL IS DYING.]”_ His face fell somewhat.

“My…soul?” you looked down at yourself.

 _“[YOUR SOUL IS YOUR ENTIRE SELF. THE VERY CULMINATION OF YOUR BEING. WHAT MAKES YOU, YOU. IT IS DIFFERENT FOR EACH AND EVERY HUMAN. HOWEVER MANY THERE ARE. AND DIFFERENT FOR EACH MONSTER. WHILE ALL MONSTER SOULS ARE WHITE, WE ALL HAVE SPECIFIC QUALITIES THAT MAKE US UNIQUE. MONSTERS ARE GENERALLY MADE UP OF LOVE, MERCY AND COMPASSION. BUT SOME MIGHT HAVE A BIT MORE INTEGRITY IN THEM, OR A LITTLE MORE KINDNESS. WHILE HUMANS…HUMANS HAVE SEVEN MAIN SOUL TRAITS…AND LIMITLESS COMBINATIONS OF THOSE SEVEN...]”_ Gray seemed to get lost in the explanation of souls, before shaking his head, turning back to you. _“[THIS IS NO TIME TO BE GETTING INTO THIS CONVERSATION, HOWEVER. BY THE TIME I AM DONE EXPLAINING, YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN SCATTERED THROUGH THE VOID A HUNDRED TIMES OVER. YOUR SOUL NEEDS TO BE PURGED OF THE MAGIC RESIDING WITHIN IT.]”_

You looked at him, breathing out shakily. You noticed that you were beginning to feel tired. “How…how do we get it out?”

Gray gave you a lopsided grin. _“[I BELIEVE I CAN BE OF ASSISTANCE.]”_ He raised one of his hands once more, hovering it above your chest. 

“Wait…how can I trust you?” you asked, pulling your arms even closer to yourself, stepping away from him. You didn’t know why you suddenly did not trust him. Red flags were suddenly waving in your mind. While this monster before you looked like Gaster almost perfectly, acted like the Doctor you made coffee for on the daily, and even wanted to help you…just like Gaster did on that very first night you awoke in the guest room in his house…you didn’t know this monster. A stranger. Only the two of you in this empty pit of darkness.

 _“[MY DEAR…]”_ Gray mumbled, using that familiar voice. _“[I WAS HOPING IF I WERE TO HELP YOU ESCAPE…YOU COULD DO THE SAME FOR ME DOWN THE ROAD.]”_ You gave him a confused expression before you felt something tugging at something deep inside your chest. You looked over at Gray and noticed a gray colored magic flaring up from his eye socket, in much the same fashion as the doctor, yet more wild and uncontrolled. The sight of the gray flames flaring up so high made you quiver in fear. 

_“[DO NOT FIGHT IT,]”_

It was hard not to fight against whatever force was making it feel like the very heart beating in your chest was being tugged on. You lurched forward as Gray tugged his hand back towards him sharply, only being kept on your feet by the gray magic suddenly encircling your body. You hadn’t realized your eyes had fallen shut until a bright light piercing your closed eyelids made you open them, pupils straining to right themselves against the sudden light.

 _“[BREATHTAKING…SUCH A WONDERFUL CONTRAST TO THE STARCH BLACKNESS…]”_ Gray mumbled at the shining object in his skeletal hands.

You felt cold. Oh so cold. You didn’t know why you felt so cold, but you could easily guess why by looking at the bright light in Gray’s hands. You felt better just by looking at the hilariously cartoon shaped heart that emitted a light so bright it illuminated both Gray’s and your faces. It seemed to pulse with every breath you took, its light enveloping you and making you feel safer. You took a step closer to the light that Gray held in his hands. The light that belonged to you.

 _“[THIS, IS YOUR SOUL…]”_ Gray explained, summoning another hand. You nearly missed the hand appearing out of nothingness, but watched as the monster carefully flipped the heart around so you could see the front of it.

The sight of it made you gasp, your soul responding with your shocked emotions and filling the space between the two of you with even more light.

There was a crack right in the middle of your soul, a crack filled with a dark, gooey substance that made you shiver to just look at it.

_“[THIS IS THE VOID MAGIC THAT HAS INVADED YOUR SOUL. IT HAS PROGRESSED FURTHER THAT I THOUGHT…IT NEEDS TO BE TAKEN OUT IMMEDIATELY IF YOU ARE TO HAVE ANY CHANCES OF ESCAPING THIS PLACE.”]_

“How…?” you simply asked.

 _“[TRUST. DO NOT GIVE IN. DO NOT FIGHT ME.]”_ Gray hovered the summoned hand over your soul as you gave him a questioning look. _“[MY DEAR, I APOLOGIZE AHEAD OF TIME FOR THIS.]”_ Gray magic enveloped your soul, and you felt tugging once more.

Only much more painful. You screeched at the sudden pain and almost fell to your knees, but gray magic enveloped your body and held you upright once again. You looked over at Gray. His face was unreadable as he tugged at the void magic inside of you that seemed rather persistent to stay.

 _“[IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT…IT WILL BE HARDER. MORE PAINFUL. THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE…SOME TYPE OF VESSEL WE CAN PUT THE MAGIC IN.]”_ Gray’s voice sounded strangely calm as he requested you to do the task that seemed rather impossible at this moment.

You ran your head through the various objects you had in your possession. You didn’t have much to call your own after moving out of your apartment and in with the skeletons, just the essentials…not that you had a lot of belongings to start with. Not many could be used as a type of…vessel. What kind of vessel did he need anyway? What did he mean by vessel? Another sharp, painful tug made you cry out in pain, thoughts being interrupted.

 _“[QUICKLY!]”_ He urged.

You tried to focus more on your meager amount of possessions, and your thoughts began to fly to things you had recently seen or been in contact with. The first thing you thought about was the echo flower, but that didn’t seem to make any sense. But something seemed to stick out in your mind as you struggled to think through the painful tugging at the darkness that embedded itself in your soul.

The pendant that always sat so innocently on your nightstand. The thing that reminded you of such dark times. The fake smiles. The lies. Were they all like that? From the very beginning?

The last thing he ever gave you before you realized he was only using you. The last thing you thought was a sincere present from his heart, his cold heart…

The heart you thought he loved you with…the heart he broke yours with.

It would match perfectly with the void magic that was currently calling your soul home.

You focused on that one object throughout the whole ordeal of Gray’s magic painfully pulling at your soul. Opening one eye, you saw that your soul began to dim in color the longer this went on, you closed your eyes shut tight and simply focused, ignoring the pain until suddenly…it all stopped. You opened your eyes and saw that in Gray’s floating hand, enveloped in gray magic to keep it from returning into the void was the magic that had once been inside of you. It was even more black and sinister looking than the darkness all around you. 

Your soul slowly floated back towards you, becoming one with you once more and making you feel warm and whole again.

 _“[A NECKLACE? QUITE HONESTLY…I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT…]”_ Gray eyed the suspended magic in his possession. You watched as he constricted the void magic into a tinier ball, the blackness swirling around angrily before it disappeared.

“Where did it…?” you asked.

_“[IT NOW RESIDES IN THE VESSEL YOU HAD THOUGHT OF. DO NOT BE SURPRISED OF THE SUDDEN CHANGE IN APPEARANCE YOU MIGHT FIND. PERHAPS IT IS FOR THE BETTER IF YOUR THOUGHTS WERE ANYTHING TO GO BY.]”_

You were about to ask how it got there, before you realized a more important question should be asked. “Wait, you can read my…?”

_“[ONLY IN THAT MOMENT. MY MAGIC WAS TOUCHING YOUR SOUL. I COULD NOT FEEL EXACTLY WHAT YOU WERE FEELING, BUT I WAS VAGUELY AWARE OF IT. IT SEEMS YOU FEEL STRONG RESENTMENT TOWARDS SOMEONE. I RECOMMEND LETTING GO OF THAT.]”_

You huffed. You felt somewhat better now that the void magic was purged from your system, and even though he helped you…he shouldn’t be telling you how to feel. “And why is that?”

 _“[I COULD NOT REMOVE EVERY PIECE OF VOID MAGIC FROM YOUR SOUL.]”_ Gray towered over you, pointing to your chest once more. _“[IT RESPONDS TO YOUR KIND BY FEEDING OFF NEGATIVITY. DO NOT LET IT GROW. OR ELSE I WILL SEE YOU HERE ONCE MORE.]”_

You shivered at that. It almost sounded like a threat as he turned away from you, waving his hand and opening up a portal. Wordlessly, he stepped aside and allowed you to look in. You saw yourself, laying in the bedroom that Gaster had given you. You had various machines attached to you. You saw Gaster, Green, G and Sans conversing animatedly beside your bed. You couldn’t hear them. Blue was seated beside your immobile body, looking at you with a worried expression. Did they think you were dead or something? This was like an out of body experience.

You thought about it for a second, it pretty much was.

 _“[YOU HAVE BEEN GONE FOR QUITE A WHILE, MY DEAR. IT IS ABOUT TIME YOU RETURNED,]”_ Gray pushed against your back gently and guided you through the portal. _"[DO NOT FORGET THAT I HELPED YOU WHEN THE TIME COMES...]"_

The world around you went gray.

\--

Alarms from the machines rang out causing Blue to startle. Gaster, Green, G and Sans had left the room just a few minutes prior, telling him to let them know if anything changed…but you had been there for four days already…things were looking rather bleak.

“OH STARS WHAT DO I DO? BE QUIET!” Blue played around with the machines to try and get them to be quiet before he could barely make out the smallest of groans. It caused him pause as his eyelights shot down to where you rested, your eyes slowly fluttering open.

“YOU’RE…” Blue stood there, surprised to see you awake.

You wish you could respond…but there was a mask on your face supplying you with oxygen.

“OH, RIGHT!” Blue rushed to take the mask off as you coughed, sitting upright. He let you get reacquainted with your surroundings, watching you with worry. Sweet thing.

“Blue…?” you asked, reaching out. It all still seemed so strange. The void. Gray. The dangerous magic within your soul that he pulled out…sending you back here. Were you really here or was this a dream? 

Blue immediately grabbed your hand in return, eyelights fixated on your face. You realized you had something clamped onto your finger and you looked around, only just now noticing the various beeping and the rather annoying alarm going off – Blue finally found the button to turn the alarm off after some more fumbling. You saw that you were hooked up to IVs, a heart monitor, and a pulse oximeter. They were monitoring everything they could…it touched your heart to see that they were worried. But where did they get this stuff?

“ARE YOU…ARE YOU OKAY?” Blue asked cautiously, still giving you your space, but you felt one of his phalanges rub against your skin in a calming fashion.

“I’m fine…” you replied, shooting him a small smile, he seemed relieved at that and you could see his shoulders slump underneath of his battle body. “How long?”

“Four days…” Blue responded rather quietly – surprising you since you had never heard him speak quietly –, focusing on your hand for a moment before something seemed to click in his mind. “OH! THE DOCTOR AND EVERYBODY ELSE SHOULD KNOW YOU ARE AWAKE! WE WERE SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU HUMAN!” Blue shot up, your hand falling from his onto the bedsheets. He ran to the door, throwing it open before pausing and turn around to look at you still lying there. “THE MAGNIFICENT BLUE WILL BE RIGHT BACK! Please…don’t go back to sleep…” his voice got quieter as he spoke, lingering in the doorway before he ran out, shouting once more about you being awake.

You nodded as you relaxed into the pillows, the silence of the room only being invaded by the constant beeping of the machines letting you know that you were still alive. Still present in the now. You couldn’t shake off the feeling that what you had experienced was a rather vivid dream. But being out for four days…? Did that classify as a coma? You slid your eyes over to your dresser, your eyes widening as you shot back up from relaxing.

On the nightstand, your necklace rested. You could only recognize it by its chain, which remained unchanged.

Except instead of your birthstone, it was a black star diopside, shining in the light of the room. It seemed to be darker in the middle and after grabbing it – by the chain only, you were afraid to touch the new gem that rested as the centerpiece – you looked closer and saw that there was something moving inside of the gem. Almost like electricity.

It felt familiar, and when you gently touched the gem, you felt a shiver go up your spine.

“So it wasn’t a dream…” you spoke gently. Something inside you made you have the urge to put the necklace on, yet still you hesitated. It was almost like you were arguing with yourself whether or not to put it on. Ultimately, you unclasped the chain and put it around your neck, the gem feeling cold against your skin as it slipped out of sight underneath of your shirt.

Knock. Knock.

You looked over when you heard the two raps, seeing Gaster at the door, looking at you with wide, yet relieved eyes. He looked even more tired than the last time you saw him.

“[BLUE WAS NOT LYING…YOU ARE AWAKE…]”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know this might seemed rushed and it might not make a lot of sense, but bear with me I wanted to FINALLY get a chapter out to you guys after being away for so long.  
> To answer a lot of questions at once: I didn't mean for this story to suddenly go on hiatus, and I didn't mean to not give you guys notice that it was. Life (work, school, illnesses, a bunch of things), picked up all of a sudden and I could really only write a few sentences every now and then before I collapsed due to exhaustion (literally a few times).  
> I will be continuing this story. That I promise you. It does have a plot that I intend to finish and see through to the end. It may take awhile since I am both working full-time (sometimes more hours than I'm supposed to) and I'm also in school.  
> If it ever does have to go on hiatus again because I get too swamped, I will let all of you know, that was my fault. I fell down on that, but I literally did not have time to write something to you guys to give you an update, I apologize. I will try better next time.
> 
> Anyway, to end this long A/N, thank you for being so patient with me. Thank you for the constant love and attention this silly little story is getting. Let me know if you guys see anything wrong with this chapter or this story in general. I hope this makes sense since it was written in fragments (over 2 months, I'm sorry). You guys are amazing, never doubt that. I love you all. Stay determined.


	8. Star Lullabye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /rises from grave/ I LIVE  
> (Psst, also TW for mentions of abuse, just letting you know ahead of time, friend-o)

After being checked out thoroughly by the doctor and being told to rest a few more days under close supervision, you were back on your feet. The black gem still rested around your neck and no matter how long it stayed close to your body, it never seemed to get warm. It shocked you sometimes when you were bent over cleaning something and it was away from your body, then you straightened up and the freezing cold gem hit your warmed skin causing you to flinch in surprise. It took some getting used to, but you finally didn’t react anymore.

You were quick to get back to work, though Gaster still seemed hesitant to make you do anything, so you really just tidied up the house since he hadn’t wrote anything on the whiteboard. After a few days of making coffee for him, setting it outside of your door like you had done before, he seemed to give up – or was reassured that you were well enough -, and started writing down specific tasks for you to do once more.

It was only a couple of days after you had awoken, and you noticed that everyone had in some way been avoiding you. Were they worried about you and wanted to give you some space? Or were they afraid you were going to start asking questions? You had not remembered what had gotten you into the coma in the first place until a couple of days after waking up, reminded of the incident when you were walking down a hallway of the large mansion, carrying a tray of various snacks upon it, before you walked past the laboratory door…or what was the replacement laboratory door. It made you pause.

Before the incident, you weren’t allowed down here. The skeletons since then had also stopped keeping you from specific spots in the mansion. Maybe they felt guilty? 

You had placed the tray of snacks in front of the lab and knocked on the makeshift door before fleeing, hiding behind a corner. You heard the makeshift door being opened and the sound of a small laugh followed by a small sigh. When you hear the door close again, you peeked back out from around the corner and saw that the tray had been taken inside. 

That made you feel a little bit better.

Today, Gaster had simply asked for you to tidy up the house and prepare dinner for everyone. You believed this would be the first time everyone had come together for a dinner since you had woken up. You swept the foyer of the last remaining bits of dirt before grabbing a rag and some wood polish you had stashed to the side and beginning to polish the wood surfaces that were around, humming to yourself. Sometimes when you were alone, you would hum a tune that had gotten stuck in your head due to hearing it on the radio that Papyrus had brought into your room one day when you were still recovering. He said it was a “get well” present, and you thought it was a rather thoughtful gift.

You could listen to the music and catch up with the latest hits, or catch up on the latest news.

Speaking of which, you really hadn’t gone down to the human town in a couple of weeks…had you?

You paused in your polishing, glancing at the shining floor as another thought invaded your mind. You had left him weeks ago, and he hadn’t made any attempt to try and contact you. Not that you wanted to go back to him, no you didn’t want that at all. You were sick and tired of being manipulated. The words he could so easily craft and make you twist to his every whim…you couldn’t believe it took you so long to realize what was happening. You sighed as you began to polish again, this time with more force. You were vaguely aware of a humming deep in your chest but you paid it no mind.

He shouldn’t have done what he did. He shouldn’t have lied to you, toyed with your feelings, made you doubt yourself over and over again on countless occasions when all you tried to do was please him. It was an endless cycle that you were trapped in and you couldn’t find your way out of it until you found him with someone else. Only then could you really see the big picture and escape. Before you were pushing it off, thinking it was normal…you didn’t really have anything else to compare it to. He was your first real…relationship.

You gripped the rag in your hand tighter, breathing out harshly.

You wouldn’t let him back into your life, no matter what.

You straightened yourself back up to look at the polished piece of wood. You expected to feel the cold gem around your neck hit your skin…instead the gem that touched you was burning hot.

“Ow!” you gasped sharply, digging the black gem away from your skin to look at it in the light. It didn’t look much different, except that the magic inside of it was moving faster than before, hitting the sides of its encasing angrily, wanting to escape.

You took a deep breath to calm yourself, reminding yourself about what Gray had said. You couldn’t get angry…this thing fed off of any negative emotions you emitted.

“kid?” you heard a voice ask. You panicked briefly and shoved the black gem back down your shirt – it was thankfully cooler than before since you had calmed down some, but it was still warm against your skin – before turning around to the voice.

“Hello, Sans,” you gave him a polite wave. He only smiled back briefly before looking down.

You could feel the guilt radiating off of him in waves. It made you uncomfortable. Just before you had pulled him out of that…portal, he had basically threatened you. Now you knew more than you knew he was comfortable with, but he couldn’t do anything about it.

“you feelin’ okay?” he asked, scratching the back of his skull. They were all still so concerned about you.

“I feel fine. You guys have taken such good care of me in my time of need. I thank you for that. I feel like I keep causing you all trouble.” Sans seemed to fidget at your thanking him, scratching at his head once more.

“nah…i should be the one thanking you, pulling me out of that portal and all,” Sans replied, absently watching as you sprayed the rag with the wood polish once more and began to clean another piece of wooden furniture in the foyer.

You had noticed that nobody had talked to you about what exactly had happened to you. You knew where you had gone, yet nobody had said anything to you yet. Not even Gaster. Usually he would want to ask questions…but even he was hesitant.

“hey…____?”

You looked over, pausing in your work. It wasn’t everyday that Sans called you by your name. He wasn’t meeting your eyes, staring pointedly at the rag.

“do you…remember anything? anything at all from when you were unconscious?”

You were silent for a moment. You remembered every little detail. From the moment you woke up in the void to the moment you met Gray. You could feel his permanent gaze still on you, studying you ever so intently. You could feel his gray magic pulling your soul from your body and tearing the void magic from it. The excruciating pain still made your skin prickle when you remembered what it felt like. It was unlike anything you had ever felt before. The void magic that was even darker than the black void that had been all around you, that threatened to engulf you. The now ice cold gem resting against your neck did not help either.

You shivered.

You felt Sans’ gaze on you now after that long period of silence. His eyelights focused on you, narrowing as you shivered. “kid?”

Slowly, you shook your head, eyes staring at the piece of wooden furniture. “I don’t remember anything.”

Sans continued to stare at you for a second, unconvinced. You wondered if he would call you out on it. His face seemed to be hard, but after studying you for a few moments, his features seemed to soften just the slightest, and he shrugged. “alright. glad you’re back on your feet kid. can’t wait to see what you make for dinner.” He turned around and waved, shuffling away. You watched him leave, heaving out a grateful breath when he was gone.

You didn’t know why you lied…Should you have told him the truth? What would he have thought when you told him about Gray? Or would you not even mention Gray’s existence? The thought plagued you as you finished up cleaning in the foyer, putting away all your cleaning materials and making your way towards the kitchen for a drink.

Those thoughts could be put on the backburner for now.

You grabbed a glass from one of the cupboards and filled it with water, swallowing a mouthful of the cool liquid, steeling yourself.

Well…dinner wouldn’t make itself.

\--

It had taken a couple of hours, but you had made a dinner that you were proud of. Three delicious plates of taco rings sat on the kitchen counter as you washed your hands, shaking them slightly of any loose droplets before drying them. You had already called the skeletons down to dinner and were simply just waiting for everyone to gather at the table as you brought out the three plates, sour cream, taco sauce, a salad, and anything else you might have thought the skeletons would have wanted with their slices of taco ring. The dinner was rather uneventful after everyone gathered. It was strangely quiet and it made you even more uncomfortable.

You cleaned up after everyone was done eating and began cleaning the table, before Gaster stepped up and placed a hand on your shoulder. You looked up, he looked concerned.

“[MY DEAR…ARE YOU FEELING ALRIGHT? I DID NOT ASK TOO MUCH OF YOU TODAY, DID I?]” he asked, concern in his voice.

You smiled in return and took the plate from his boney hands. “I feel fine, Doctor, thank you for your concern.” That seemed to reassure Gaster, but he lingered around you for a little bit, watching you closely. He looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t gather the words. Eventually he left as well and you were by yourself.

You made your way back to your room after cleaning up and closed the door behind you gently, - making a point to lock it –, shedding your clothes to change into what you normally wear.

You removed the necklace from your neck, the unnaturally cold gem still unsettled you, but you placed it beside the slightly glowing echo flower that you had come to enjoy the company of. You would speak to it, and it would speak back. It almost made it seem like there was someone else in the room. Often you thought you heard your words being echoed back in a voice that was not your own, but the flower would never do it twice in a row, so you just ignored it. You climbed into your bed and quickly let the warm embrace of sleep overtake you.

\--

You woke up with a start, but around you was not the room in the estate. You weren’t even inside.

You woke up surrounded by flowers. You did not know what they were called, and the bright white and pink hurt your eyes as you stood up, wiping your eyes. For some reason, you felt as if the flowers were trying to tell you something.

You began walking. You couldn’t do anything else. The flower field seemed endless, and only consisted of the same type of flower, which struck you as strange, but you continued on.

Eventually the field began to thin, and soon you were walking up a hill that was simply covered in short blades of grass. You continued up the hill until even the grass around you began to turn brown and dead. It was scary. You wanted to turn around and return to the flowers. You had felt safer walking among them, but something was pushing you upwards further and further.

Finally you got to the top, and at the top sat your blue echo flower, looking wilted and dry, but still trying to glow its faint fluorescent light.

You knelt down on the ground, the dirt hitting your knees and touched the petals of the flower.

At first it didn’t speak, but eventually you could hear a quiet word being emitted from it.

_“Beware.”_

You suddenly felt someone behind you and you flipped around, falling flat on your back as you looked up at the figure above you. It was all too familiar. Your stomach churned and your eyes widened as the figure loomed. It stalked towards you at a menacingly slow pace, almost upon you. You wanted to scream, but all you did was close your eyes against the familiar, shadowed figure that stood over top of you.

You waited for the screaming, the shouting, the threats. You wanted to disappear. It was horrible.

You heard the figure breathe before you screamed, hands covering your head in defense. He was going to finally do it. Finally do what he always threatened to do.

“NO!” you screamed, sitting up in your bed, panting. You quickly looked around and ran your hands all over yourself.

You were here. In your room. In the estate. Not in that field, not with him. You scrambled out of bed and went to the bathroom that was connected to your room, grabbing a disposable cup and filling it with water to drink – a couple of times – to help you calm down. You looked at yourself in the mirror, sighing.

Dark circles under your eyes, skin pale and just starting to regain its color once more, tear trails down your face. You were a mess.

You wiped at the trails with the palms of your hands.

The sudden knock on the door startled you as you exited the bathroom. What time was it even? Who was at your door? You unlocked and opened the door, seeing Sans standing there, leaning against the doorframe, his eyes narrowed and pointing towards you.

“need you for a second…” he didn’t seem to be in the cheeriest of moods. If he had heard you screaming…he didn’t say anything about it. You thanked him silently for that.

“Okay…?” you questioned, closing your door behind you. “What for?”

“just for something. follow me.” Sans walked out of hallway with such speed you almost had to jog to keep up with him, despite his smaller stature. You managed to get a glance at a clock resting on the wall before falling into step – kind of, he was walking rather fast – behind him.

“Sans…it’s three in the morning. Can this wait until…later?” you asked, suddenly feeling tired.

“nope,” Sans continued on, determined, leading you into the foyer…and straight out the door. You paused in the threshold, thoughts causing you to panic.

He was kicking you out. He had had enough of you and your screaming in the middle of the night. He probably heard you scream and wanted nothing more to do to you. Where were you going to go after this? You thought you were safe here, had…friends here. Or at least was starting to.

“kid, you coming?” Sans asked. He was currently climbing a hill, having stopped midway to see if you were still following.

“Y-Yeah…” you responded quietly, but loud enough for him to hear, shuffling after him.

The two of you were walking up the hill for a little while, the incline making your legs hurt and your breath grow short. Wow, you needed to exercise. You kept your distance from the small skeleton in front of you, watching his movements closely. 

“sheesh, kid. i’m not going to hurt you,” Sans said after awhile, smiling over in your direction. “i can hear your heart pounding from all the way over here.” 

“Y-You can?” you couldn’t help but stutter, both out of fear, and at the difficulty you were having catching your breath. How high was this hill anyway? 

“nah. but i can feel the way your soul is fluttering in fear, relax kid…just want show you something.” 

For some reason you felt a bit exposed at how easily Sans could read you just by…feeling your soul? What did that even mean? You subconsciously crossed your arms over your chest and kept your gaze forward, feeling exposed. A feeling that you had grown familiar with…you weren’t enjoying that fact.

It wasn’t too long before you got to the top of the hill and saw…a blanket? And a telescope? You paused to catch your breath and began to survey your surroundings. From up here, you could see the human town below you with its thriving night life and bright lights. It almost looked like stars that were resting on the ground. You glanced over to the other side of the hill and you could also see the faintest, flickering firelight of the monster town that you had visited not long ago.

The last place you looked was up, and boy was that a treat.

The sky was littered with stars, unhindered by the light pollution happening down in the human town. You could see everything against the dark blue of the sky. You could even see the faintest flecks of deep purple and even black in the sky. It was breathtaking.

“welcome to scenic, my getaway,” Sans lazily gestured to the telescope and the blanket, which he promptly sat on and motioned for you to do the same. “water’s just fine.”

You hesitated. Unsure what he had up his sleeve. A couple days before he was threatening you to not invade in his family’s business – though you could understand why – and now he is acting like he wants to get all friendly with you.

“kid, i’m not going to bite,” Sans rolled the lights in his eyes and watched as you slowly approached the blanket and sat on the edge farthest from him, curling up defensively.  
It was a start…

There was silence between the two of you first. You thought that you would have to be the one to break the awkwardness in that stillness, but Sans surprised you by speaking first.

“i enjoy coming here when i have a lot on my mind.” Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Sans’ skull facing the night sky. You could swear that his eyes were shining as bright as the stars.

“It’s…nice,” you supplied, your answer short. You were still recovering from the dream slightly and you could swear that whenever you blinked, you could still see the field of flowers from within your dream, almost like it had been burned against the lids of your eyes.

“so…what happened?” Sans asked, head still tilted towards the sky, but the lights of his eyes now rested upon you.

“Huh?” Eloquent as always.

“i heard you,” Sans’ response was as short and curt as yours. “hell, the whole house probably heard you.”

You shrunk in upon yourself even further. “I’m sorry,” the words tumbled from your lips with practiced ease. “I didn’t mean to…”

“hey, hey…no need to apologize,” Sans’ head now tilted towards you. There were a few more quiet moments, the air around the two of you still tense. “listen, kid…” he breathed a heavy sigh, rummaging around in the pocket of his hoodie. You couldn’t help but glance over at the movement, watching. “you aren’t the only one that suffers from night terrors.” Sans pulled out a box of cigarettes. It looked old, barely used. Guess he wasn’t that much of a smoker. Sans tapped on the box a few times before pulling one of the sticks out, lighting it with a quick spark of his magic and putting it to his teeth. He inhaled deeply before letting it escape through his teeth, the wind carrying the smoke away from you and down the hill before dissipating into nothingness.

You said nothing.

“i have these dreams…of my brother and i,” Sans started. He seemed to be having trouble telling his tale if his tight grip on the blanket was anything to go by, it almost looked like he was going to rip it. “it always seems to end one way…i lose papyrus…” Sans breathed out a shaky sigh. To you, it looked like he wanted to speak more, but something was keeping him from doing so. Something was keeping him guarded. Sans’ eyelights shot over at you, his face looking weary and sad.

“do you want to talk about it?”

Honestly, no, you didn’t. But the extreme weariness on his face created by trying to explain what his own night terrors were about…made something inside of you ache.

There was another short period of silence before you shifted under his gaze, glancing at him before back to the patterned blanket.

“Why do you…care?” It wasn’t hostile in any way. Just a simple question. You wanted to know why he wanted to know suddenly. It was all out of the blue. Why should he care about your feelings? Your fears? The demons you tried to hide and run away from? He didn’t seem so keen before, why now?

“because suffering through these things alone can really strain someone,” Sans stated, now looking at you directly. You felt as if he was looking through you. It sounded like he had tons of experience.

“Well…” you started, finding it difficult to form words. “I was in a bad place…with a,” you paused, already having to swallow a lump in your throat. “Bad person…” you hesitated further. You didn’t want to delve into those memories right now, right after you had that dream. Your trust in Sans wasn’t that strong either, so why should he know what happened in your past before he knew you? “I don’t really want to go into details.” You hugged your knees closer to your chest, shivering slightly. It seemed like it was going to be a chilly summer night.

Sans stared at you patiently, cigarette burning lazily in between his phalanges. There was no judgement on his face, or at least from what you could tell.

More silence passed between you before you heard Sans take another drag of the cigarette.

“well kid…” Sans began, breathing out the smoke in a puff of gray swirls. “it seems as though we started off on the wrong foot.” He dropped the previous subject entirely, turning his body around to face you. You didn’t reciprocate, instead turning your head to meet his bright gaze. “name’s sans, sans the skeleton.” He held out one of his boney hands.

You stared at the hand for a second, blinking a few times before letting a small smile take over your previous somber expression. “____.” You spoke your name and reached out, clasping your hand in his…

And promptly pulling it back after getting shocked, shaking your hand at the numb feeling. You might have yelped in surprise, but you wouldn’t admit it.

Sans erupted in laughter, almost laughing so hard he fell over.

“What was that?!” you held your wrist in your other hand, frowning.

Sans held up the hand you shook, and you saw a joy buzzer. “a classic.”

You stared for a few moments, before starting to laugh yourself, attempting to hide your laughter behind the back of your hand. How the hell did you fall for that old trick?

As you giggled yourself into a fit, you didn’t notice Sans’ smile widen and his eyes grow softer.

“so yeah, thanks for saving my life, keeping me from getting dusted and stuff. good job,” Sans gave you a thumbs up.

“No problem, Sans,” you replied in between giggles.

“i’m also sorry i uh…threatened you,” his voice sounded sheepish.

“Don’t worry about it, Sans.”

The two of you walked back to the mansion, your mood a lot lighter than it had been. Sans walked you back to your room, standing by the door as you walked through the threshold.

“hey kid.”

You looked over at Sans, who had a gentle look on his face as he looked at you. “Hm?”

“take care of yourself…cause there are people that care about you.” Sans gave you a playful wink before shutting the door behind himself. You eyed the closed door for a moment before flopping back down in your bed, smile on your face, something quite different from when you first awoke.

The rest of that night was spent in a peaceful dreamless sleep, unaware of the world around you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Sorry I have been missing for forever! Life has been crazy, I got a new job and a new car and WOW IT'S BEEN SO LONG YOU GUYS.  
> I'm sorry this chapter might seem...weirdly paced and out of sorts. I'm trying to get back into the swing of writing and rediscovering my style. It's always a struggle when it's been a long time since I've written. So please feel free to point out mistakes or errors to me.  
> But oh my god you guys are so amazing and supportive, and it means the world to me that even now, you guys are still discovering this, coming back to it, and leaving comments and kudos.  
> You guys are amazing, don't doubt it! <3


	9. Fireflies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -stares into the void-

Gaster fiddled with the control panel in the lab downstairs, irritated huff escaping through his mouth as he watched the data fly by on the screen.

It made no sense.

Of course he was the one who opened that portal, but he didn’t expect it to go out of control like it did…he was only trying to get closer to the goal he was hoping to achieve!

But the portal to the void. It didn’t go where he had hoped it was going to go. Had he miscalculated? Was there an error? He was sure he put in all the data correctly.

Gaster shook his head and rubbed at his sockets, tiredness overtaking him. How long had he been attempting to decipher this data? Five days? Seven? He had been trying for quite a while.

He had put everyone in danger that night, including you. That thought was eating away at him. What he couldn’t understand is why you were unaffected until you had been pierced with the consuming magic of the void. It stumped him, and he was rather annoyed – read, angry – that he couldn’t figure it out. All he could guess was that magic was a key factor.

But all humans had some sort of magic in their souls, just not enough to _use_ it.

A knock at the makeshift laboratory door interrupted his thoughts. Without looking away from the screen, he called out a, “[COME IN.]”

The door opened, no longer the heavy metal door, it was replaced with a piece of plywood on a set of hinges. Gaster would have to get that replaced soon.

“still struggling, doc?” G asked, walking in and leaning against the console, hands tucked away in the pockets of his low riding jeans.

“[WHAT DO YOU THINK?]” Gaster snapped back, before reeling himself in with a long sigh, boney fingers shaking slightly as they rested on the nonexistent bridge of his nose. “[APOLOGIES…I HAVE BEEN RATHER…TIRED, TRYING TO FIGURE THIS OUT.]”

G shook his head in understanding, eyeing the screen for himself. It was all contradictions and conflicting data. He understood why Gaster was struggling. “don’t be, it’s a…difficult…situation.” The silence hung in the air for a moment before G spoke again. “when do you think you’ll be able to figure it out?”

“[SOONER RATHER THAN LATER. THE QUICKER WE GET THE REST OF YOU HOME TO YOUR RESPECTIVE UNIVERSES…THE SOONER THIS ONE WILL STABILIZE.]” Gaster eyed another screen that consisted of a jagged line that never kept still and sometimes split into multiple lines before joining into one solid line again just to split into multiples of itself once more.

G remained quiet, eyeing the screen that Gaster was looking at before standing back up and walking to the door of the laboratory, intending to leave before opening it slightly. What he saw there made him smile gently, lifting up the two cups full of fresh coffee that had been placed on a tray right outside of the door. He brought the other one to Gaster, who took it thankfully, pouring copious amounts of sugar that had been provided into the black liquid. G liked it black, the bitter taste pleasant to him. He looked at the doctor and then again at the cup of warm coffee curled in between his phalanges, feeling something in his SOUL throb.

Was it really necessary to go back?

\--

“So after adding about a cup of milk, you just stir it up until it’s all mixed. Wanna give it a try?” you looked over at Blue, who was watching in amazement as you made up the pancake batter. Orange sat right next to him, watching you attempt to show his brother how to cook.

Breakfast for dinner was always fantastic in your opinion.

“BUT…HOW CAN WE PUT THIS IN A TACO SHELL? IT’LL JUST DRIP RIGHT OUT!” Blue was confused.

“We…don’t,” you told Blue kindly, who seemed to short circuit with this bit of information, staring at the bowl of batter. “Now that we’ve made the batter, we could add stuff to it if you want. Berries, nuts, that sort of thing.”

“CAN WE ADD GLITTER?” Blue asked with pure sincerity and innocence.

“Uh,” you hesitated, looking over at Orange with uncertainty. He shrugged unhelpfully. Thanks. You started searching in the cupboards for a moment and finally found some edible glitter. Glittery pancakes would be a first for you. “Only if we use this type of glitter, okay?” you handed the shaker to Blue, who inspected it with narrowed eyesockets,

“IT DOESN’T SEEM AS GOOD AS THE GLITTER I USE ON MY TACOS…BUT IT WILL SUFFICE!” Blue opened the top and poured the whole bottle into the bowl before you could say anything. He took the spoon from you and began to stir the glitter into the batter – note: batter went everywhere – until it was evenly distributed. “WHAT NEXT?”

“We can add fruit if you want?” you supplied, covered in glittery batter, looking at the bowl in front of you with a sort of…worry. The counter fared no better. Neither did Blue to be honest. Orange had surprisingly…not been touched by the flying batter storm.

“CAN WE PUT IN BLUEBERRIES?” Blue sounded excited, he had stars in his sockets again.

“Of course,” you smiled at Blue who beamed back. You retrieved the blueberries from the fridge and handed them to the smiling skeleton. “Stir them in gently, you don’t want to crush the berries…there you go!” you praised as Blue added the blueberries a few at a time, stirring them in gentler than he had the glitter. He was sweating a bit as he was focusing, and Orange told you that the cooking lessons he had before usually ended in flames. You gave Orange a worried look which he responded to with a thumbs up.

“DOES THIS LOOK OKAY, ____?” Blue asked with genuine concern, looking at you and then the batter.

“It looks perfect, we can put the batter on the pan now,” you grabbed a ladle and a spatula. You dipped the ladle in the pancake batter before pouring it onto the greased pan. It sizzled a bit and spread out, before settling and beginning to cook. “Now just wait a few seconds…and you can check under the pancake to see if it’s a golden brown,” you showed Blue the underside of the pancake. It still needed a few moments, so you let it back down.

“THIS SMELLS AMAZING!” Blue jumped up and down excitedly, watching the pancake cook right in front of him.

You smiled as you flipped the pancake, letting the other side cook as well. It was a perfect golden brown.

“need any help?” Orange piped up finally, his chin resting on the counter.

“Oh, actually, I do,” you looked over your shoulder at him. “Can you fetch the eggs, bacon and sausage from the fridge? I’ll cook them once Blue’s confidant with the pancakes.” Orange eyed you for a moment as you began showing Blue what to do once more, staying with him as he cooked one pancake, flipping it to reveal it a little on the darker side than yours had been.

He was a little distraught at that, but you reassured him that it wasn’t burned and that it took practice to get them a nice golden brown. You stayed with him a little while longer, praising him when he flipped one perfectly to get that nice golden color.

It warmed Orange’s SOUL to watch you interact with Blue like this. The way you were so gentle with his brother made him smile unconsciously, yet he hid it against the palm of his hand, standing up when the smile had disappeared. He retrieved the ingredients that you had requested, setting them to the side.

“Thanks, Orange,” you looked up at him and gave him a smile as well.

Orange grinned back lazily, ignoring the way his SOUL fluttered happily in his chest when your smile was directed at him.

“Okay, Blue, I am entrusting the very important task of cooking the rest of these pancakes. You are a master at it now. You got this!” You cheered Blue on, pumping your fist in the air.

Blue’s smile grew even wider, stars in his eyes. You had stopped questioning how they did that, instead just taking the excuse of “magic” and rolling with it. “I WILL DO MY VERY BEST FOR YOU HUMAN!” Blue pumped his fist with you as well and began making the rest of the pancakes as you started warming up another pan for the bacon and sausages.

Orange took his seat again as he watched you work, silent. Throughout the time you had been here, under their roof…everyone seemed to slowly grow attached to you. Even him. It was like something was pulling all of them to you. He wondered briefly what it was. Was it the kindness you showed towards other, despite your circumstances? The old man had told everyone that you didn’t have a home to return to after that stormy night, so he believed the only option was for you to stay here and be their live-in housekeeper.

Orange barely stifled a snort as he thought about that, getting a curious look from you as he waved you away dismissively. Look where it got them, keeping you in their home. You had already been somewhat exposed to what they were working on, regarding the whole portal incident. Yet, you never seemed to bring it up in conversation. You never asked questions, didn’t pry. It didn’t make sense to him. Humans were such curious creatures, yet you didn’t seem to want to know. Orange was a bit thankful for that, since even Blue didn’t know some of that was going down in the laboratory.

All Blue knew was that Gaster was trying to get them home, to their respective universe and timeline. Orange didn’t think his brother knew that the longer they stayed here, the more this universe threatened to fall apart at the seams. There was nothing tethering them here, to this timeline, this universe…and yet. 

How had you managed to survive the void? For four days?

Orange’s eyes once again rested upon you. He tried to ignore the happy hum in his SOUL as he did. What was it about you that made all the skeletons in the household be drawn to you? He couldn’t figure it out. Was it the traits you had already shown them? The kindness? The patience? The integrity? Or was it the mystery of the traits that you haven’t shown yet? Of course humans had their dominant traits…but the other traits flared up sometimes…and that’s what made them dangerous creatures to be feared. He watched as you continued helping Blue flip the pancakes, actually tossing it into the air and having it land with a splatter of oil and batter. You and his brother laughed, delighted, and he couldn’t help but smile.

“Orange?” your call broke him out of his stupor.

“hmm?” he tried to cover up that he was staring at you for a bit by closing his eyes with a soft click. You either didn’t seem to have noticed or didn’t say anything about it.

“How do you like your eggs?”

“scrambled,” he replied, opening one eye socket, catching your eye and watching you nod in response, going back to the stove and beginning to make the eggs. You cracked the egg you had been holding – as well as a couple more – into the pan you had designated for them, before grabbing another spatula and effectively scrambling the yolks and whites together. You checked in on Blue, who had a pretty good stack of pancakes going on – even creating shapes out of the pancake batter like stars, crescent moons and hearts.

“HOW AM I DOING, HUMAN?” Blue asked, unable to hide the excitement from his voice.

“They look great Blue!” you smiled at him and he beamed back.

Well, they were no closer as to figuring out how to get back, so maybe Orange could relax, just this once. His eyes fell shut again and he actually slumped on the kitchen island.

He was out like a light.

\--

“…ran…ge…” a gentle voice attempted to stir the sleeping skeleton from his slumber. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder. He leaned into it subconsciously. “Or…nge?”

“nnh,” Orange stirred and slowly opened his sockets and saw you hovering over him, concerned look in your eyes. “m’up.”

“PAPY YOU LAZY BONES!” Blue had his arms crossed. “OF COURSE YOU FELL ASLEEP WHILE WE WERE STILL MAKING DINNER!”

Orange rested his chin on the counter, blinking slowly in an attempt to wake fully. If that was even possible. How long was he out? He moved to sit up and felt something slip from his shoulders. When had he been covered with a blanket?

“Dinner is almost ready,” your voice was thoughtfully quiet in Orange’s sleepy state as you gathered plates in your hands, Blue handling the rest.

Orange nodded. “see you in there.” He teleported to his seat in the dining hall. Huh, G and the old man were missing, yet everyone else was here.

You walked out with the plates of eggs, bacon and sausage – adding a bowl of fruit to the table as well –, setting them on the table and running back to help Blue, both you and the small, excitable skeleton putting down four plates with large stacks of glittery blueberry pancakes. One in the normal shape of pancakes, one with pancakes in the shape of hearts, one in the shape of crescent moons, and another in the shape of stars. 

It was quite the feast.

“Dig in everyone!”

\--

“AND THEN SHE SHOWED ME THAT WE DON’T NEED THE PASSIONATE FLAMES OF THE STOVE TO COOK QUICKER AND MORE EFFICENTLY! IT WORKS JUST AS WELL WITH A LOWER SETTING AND MORE TIME! PLUS THERE IS NO BLACK CHARRED MARKS ON THE PANCAKES! I WOULD HAVE NEVER GUESSED!” Blue exclaimed through a mouthful of pancake.

“WHAT?!” squawked Black, seeming to not believe what he was hearing. “IMPOSSIBLE! ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT YOU DIDN’T PUT THE HEAT ON THE HIGHEST SETTING?”

“THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I’M TELLING YOU BLACK! ____ IS A GREAT TEACHER!” Blue smiled over at you and you smiled kindly in response.

“THAT’S WHAT I THOUGHT TOO!” Papyrus spoke up. “BUT THE HUMAN TAUGHT ME AS WELL!”

“heh, wish you would take those cooking lessons, black,” Sans teased, pouring the rest of the bottle of syrup over his pancakes, shooting you a wide, cocky grin as you looked at him weird, your eyebrow raised. His pancakes were…so soggy in his syrup soup. Looks like you would have to buy more syrup though.

“EXCUSE ME?!” Black snarled. “I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT MY COOKING SKILLS FAR OUTWEIGH THE MEAGER SKILLS OF A…HUMAN!” he growled the word out, gripping his fork so hard you watched it bend from his strength. “HUMAN!” You snapped your attention to him. “I BET YOU DO NOT KNOW THE SECRET INGREDIENT TO MY DANGEROUSLY DELICIOUS LASAGNA!”

Well of course you didn’t. If he cooked anything like Blue and Papyrus did the first time, you would be afraid to try it for fear of eating something…inedible. You picked at your pancakes covered in powdered sugar and slathered in syrup, having grabbed too much. “Uh…basil?” you tried, looking at him meekly.

“WRONG. AS I THOUGHT YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW THAT THE SECRET OF THE MASTER CHEFS SUCH AS MYSELF! IT IS VINEGAR AND GLASS!”

You choked on the next piece of pancake you put in your mouth, coughing violently in surprise. Green fretted over you, patting your back and offering you some of his water, which you took gratefully, swallowing eagerly and setting the glass down, snapping your eyes over to Black. “Vinegar and glass don’t belong in lasagna! Especially glass!”

You didn’t catch Orange’s eyelights flashing over in your direction.

“WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW PEASANT?” Black hissed, glaring at you. You glared right back.

“heh, they just don’t know what they’re missin’ boss,” Red spoke up, but he seemed to be nervous about the thought of Black’s cooking, sweat beading on his forehead.

“We have tried to tell him for months…” Green stepped away from you, seeing as you were alright. What a nice guy…monster…skeleton… “The meal was delicious as always, ____.”

You looked at Green as he took his plate into the kitchen. “Oh, thank you Green.”

Clattering dishes made you look away from Green and to Orange, whose plate was clean.

“thanks for the grub,” he said taking his dishes to the kitchen where they would be washed. You nodded and as soon as everyone was finishing up, you gathered plates and took them to the sink, sweet little Blue helping you wash the dishes and clean up after the skeletons. 

How had they managed to get so much syrup on the table? You blamed Sans and his attempt to try to get as much syrup on his plate as possible. Damn surface tension.

Finishing quicker than you expected with help, you could see Blue’s eyes slowly drifting closed and his body starting to sway as he dried a plate. You smiled and took the plate from him despite his protest, setting him in one of the chairs and finishing cleaning before grabbing a glass of milk, and taking his skeletal hand into yours.

“Come on, master chef. Let’s get you to bed.”

Blue nodded sleepily.

\--

After tucking Blue into bed – before looking for a quick second, it was actually the first time you had been in any of the skeleton’s rooms, Blue’s bedroom was full of superhero paraphernalia and upbeat posters – you set the glass of milk down on his bedside table and left the room, closing the door quietly behind you. You were surprised when you ran directly into the sturdy body of Orange.

“Oof, Orange,” you rubbed your nose. These skeletons were harder than they looked. Orange studied you intently, stick in his mouth. You were about to chastise him again for smoking indoors, when the stick moved and you heard rattling from inside of his teeth. A lollipop? Maybe he just had some kind of oral fixation.

“c’mon,” Orange motioned for you to follow him. At first, you hesitated, but you began to follow after he paused at the bottom of the stairs, seemingly intent on you to follow him. You followed him to the foyer and outside. Hmm, this seemed familiar. Instead of the hill that Sans had taken you to, Orange began to walk towards the thicket of the forest. For some reason, your anxious thoughts weren’t plaguing you tonight. 

You wondered if that was because you had had such a good day? 

The walk through the forest was silent, only the occasional rattling of the lollipop that Orange had knocking against his teeth. Eventually, Orange slowed his pace, and you did too. You looked up at him, confusion evident in your face before he gestured for you to continue on.

A monster of little words, you thought, before heading in the direction that Orange had pointed out to you.

What you found there was…breathtaking. You were in a small clearing of the forest, the sounds of the night filling your ears. The crickets were singing short bursts of sweet songs, allowing you to close your eyes and follow along easily, the last of the cicadas’ songs for the day were long and haunting, their tones staying with you forever since they wouldn’t be here for very long, while the katydids’ tunes were a mix of something in between. It was familiar and welcome.

The clearing that Orange brought you to was almost a perfect circle, and rather small, but you mainly laid your eyes on the small pond, teeming with life in front of you. Croaks of frogs mingled with the noises of leaves rustling in the breeze and the chorus of insects. The moonlight reflected on the crystal clear water, small ripples interrupting the image of the moon and the stars when a small fish swam too quick or an enthusiastic amphibian jumped into the water. Cattails swayed on the breeze, brushing against one another or against one of the few large rocks that encircled the pond.

There were fireflies too. Tons of them. They made the trees light up with flashes of light as if it was Christmas in the middle of summer. Those that didn’t make it to the trees were flying around you, as if curious upon the newcomers. The light yellow, green and pale red of their flashes made it look like a brilliant light show.

“Wow…” you breathed out.

“exactly what i said when i found this place,” Orange shot you a grin and walked over to the pond, settling on one of the rocks that were overlooking the pond. You followed his lead and sat yourself right next to him, the air around you teeming with noise, but it was quiet at the same time. It was beautiful, peaceful. You glanced over at Orange, wondering why he wanted to share this space with you. Until now, the two of you hadn’t really connected in any sort of way, instead just giving each other quick greetings in the multiple hallways of the estate.

“Why did you bring me here?” you asked suddenly. You noticed a lightning bug had landed on top of Orange’s head. He simply brought his finger up and allowed the small creature to travel onto his finger, bringing it down to his face so he could watch the firefly flash in no apparent pattern.

“dunno,” he replied, eyelights never leaving the insect until it flew away, joining the rest of its brethren in the night sky. “just felt like…i had to show this place to someone.” He looked over at you. “and that someone was you.”

You felt your breath hitch in your throat at the intense gaze he was giving you. The pinpricks in his eyes traveled from your face to your chest, where you assumed he was attempting to see what your SOUL looked like. You immediately brought a hand to your chest in warning, and he backed off, lights traveling back up to your eyes.

“has anybody told you about souls yet?” he asked, placing his hands behind himself on the cool surface of rock and leaning on them while still keeping eye contact with you. You thought back to the void. You thought back to Gray. You shook your head slowly. “’course they didn’t.” He seemed almost…upset? “look, normally i wouldn’t even want to come near a human like you, a bunch of us agree on that point. we’ve all had our fair share of rather terrible human encounters, some worse than you can imagine…” he trailed off, looking back at the pond. “but there is just something…about you that none of us can put our fingers on. we seem to trust you, kid. and we don’t trust easy.”

“I…I understand.” You watched his gaze flicker back over to you.

“i don’t think you do understand, but that’s okay. not knowing things is good. keeps you safe.” Orange sighed out, playing with the stick in-between his teeth with his phalanges. It was quiet between the two of you for a couple of moments, you watched the fireflies all drift up towards the trees, flashing occasionally for the two of you. You had never seen so many of them at once. You didn’t notice Orange staring at you as you looked up, enraptured with the blinking lights. He studied the way you looked in the soft moonlight, how you flinched sometimes in surprise when a frog croaked rather loudly, how your hair swayed in the night breeze…

“i think i understand…” Orange spoke suddenly, causing you to look over at him, curious. He watched as a stray firefly flew up and landed on your nose, causing you to jerk in response, but you didn’t do anything about it as it flashed it’s light on your skin, a fluorescent green. It made Orange smile as he lifted his finger up to his own nasal cavity, indicating you to do the same.

You did as he told you to, and the firefly crawled its way onto your finger, staying there contentedly, your eyes trained on the small insect. Your gaze followed the pale light as it finally flew into the night sky, joining the others, watching it the best you could before you could no longer differentiate it from the others.

“Did you mean to say something, Orange?” you asked him finally, looking over at the skeleton.

Orange shook his head, small smile on his face. “nah…just know you can come here anytime to chill.”

He didn’t want to tell you that he…like the others, were drawn to your SOUL. Not yet.

\--

The two of you had walked back to the estate together, thanking Orange profusely for showing you such a beautiful spot to relax. You figured you might need it later as the time went on while you cleaned up after these skeletons. Orange shrugged in response, heading back to his bedroom. You didn’t fail to notice him looking into Blue’s bedroom to make sure he was alright.

You made your way to your bedroom as well, before pausing, heading to the kitchen instead. You made two more cups of coffee, humming to yourself as you poured each cup, settling them on a tray with cream and tons of sugar. You walked down to the lab, settling the tray in your hands so nothing would spill. You were in front of the door for the second time that day. You leaned your head towards the door, indeed hearing the hushed voices of G and Gaster. You set down the tray, looking at your job well done before escaping back to your room. You knew they would find it, they did before.

You went up to your room finally, changing and settling in for the night. You looked at the echo flower on your desk, the soft blue glow lighting up your face as you took off the necklace that you put on every morning, settling it beside the flower. You stared at it, curling up as you watched the black swirling inside of the gem, the echo flower enough to show you the movements of the magic. It still scared you, but somehow…you felt naked without the gem against your skin. You grabbed it and put it back around your neck, watching the slow swirl of magic.

You could swear you heard a voice in the dark recesses of your mind, but you chose to ignore it, instead falling asleep, gem resting in the palm of your hand.

\--

Gaster looked up at the screen, unable to understand what was going on. G was right beside him, writing down furiously on a paper attached to a clipboard, also unable to believe what was right in front of him.

“[How…?]” Gaster’s voice was quiet.

“maybe it’s just a mistake,” G supplied, even as he scribbled furiously, but even his excuse felt wrong to him, the data was right in front of them.

“[HOW HAS THE UNIVERSE MANAGED TO STABILIZE?]” Gaster stood up suddenly, the lab coat he donned when he was in the laboratory fluttering at the sudden movement, startling G in the process. He just didn’t understand.

G rubbed at his eye sockets. They had been trying all day to figure out what was happening. Throughout the day, the universe just seemed to…stabilize. It wasn’t by much, but they weren’t in as much of a rush to get everyone home as they were before. He needed some caffeine, or a smoke, so he excused himself from the lab, getting another dismissive wave from Gaster as he started writing down more notes. He opened the door and saw the tray there for the second day. He picked up the tray, carrying it inside of the lab with another smile on his face.

Gaster put tons of sugar in his coffee yet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol my boss at my new job is super abusive. :D
> 
> In other news: Will I ever start a chapter with the reader NOT IN THE GODDAMN KITCHEN? THE WORLD WILL NEVER KNOW.  
> Anyway, let me know if you see any mistakes in this, not beta'd as always. Love you guys. You da best. Smooches~


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